S. Africa Clerics Ask for Reforms : U.S. Scolds Tutu for Criticizing Reagan Policy

The Reagan Administration chastised South African Bishop Desmond Tutu on Monday for his bitter criticism of the U.S. policy of constructive engagement toward the white government, saying that any leader who refuses to take part in negotiations lessens the chances of easing South Africa’s crisis.

The carefully worded statement came just hours after Tutu, the Anglican bishop of Johannesburg and a leading opponent of apartheid, had declined to attend a meeting between a multiracial group of church leaders and South African President Pieter W. Botha.

‘Special Responsibility’

“The South African government has a special responsibility in taking steps to bridge the gap of confidence that has torn the nation,” President Reagan’s spokesman, Larry Speakes, said here. “But a serious resolution of South African problems will not take place until leaders of all communities sit down and negotiate their country’s future.

“We call on South African leaders to do so without delay. A refusal by any party to meet and negotiate only worsens the prospect for understanding in South Africa.”

The same view was expressed at the State Department in Washington as the Administration sought to maintain credibility with South African blacks while nudging the white government toward being more explicit on opening negotiations with the black majority.

Not Being Critical

However, neither Speakes nor State Department spokesman Charles Redman would accept any characterization of their remarks as criticism of Tutu, last year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nevertheless, the Administration comments seemed to be a rebuke to the South African religious leader, not only for his sharp denunciation of U.S. policy Sunday but for his refusal to attend the meeting with Botha, as well.

In a CBS television interview, Tutu called the Reagan Administration’s policy of constructive engagement “as evil, as immoral, as un-Christian as the policy they are trying to buttress--apartheid.”

Speakes said that Monday’s statement was “in response to the entire situation--up through the conclusion of the meeting (of the church leaders) with Botha today,” not just in reply to Tutu’s increasingly sharp criticism.

In the statement, the Administration tried its hardest not to alienate Tutu at the same time that it was again defending an embattled South African policy made more controversial by Botha’s hard-line speech to a provincial congress of his ruling National Party last Thursday.

“We realize that he was disappointed by President Botha’s speech, and his statements are a manifestation of that disappointment,” Speakes said of Tutu’s remarks Sunday.

“Our policy is designed to use U.S. influence to bring an end to apartheid rapidly, peacefully and with a minimum of suffering. It is a policy which accords fully with the highest principles of this nation, which has a long history of healing divisions between races through reason, negotiation and the extension of equality, justice and expanded opportunity, and political participation for all.”

Major U.S. Attention

The South African political crisis, marked by daily violence, has been the chief preoccupation of foreign policy and national security officials since Reagan came here Aug. 11 to begin a three-week vacation.

Though the Administration held on to Botha’s offer of negotiations as a positive development, the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the South African President’s hard-line stance appears to make it even more likely that Congress will impose economic sanctions against the Pretoria government--over Reagan’s veto, if necessary.

According to Speakes and other Administration officials, the President remains undecided whether he will veto sanctions legislation when it reaches his desk, presumably next month.

Since Botha’s speech, which outlined a course falling short of reforms that the Administration had thought were on the way, the United States has called for early clarification of the South African leader’s remarks on negotiations, full universal citizenship and homelands policy.

White House national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane said that such clarification is expected in days or weeks.

No Certain Timetable

On Monday, Speakes said the Reagan Administration is not aware of any timetable for the next step.

“I would assume our embassy is talking to the South Africans about their . . . further clarification of the speech, which might include some timetable,” he said.

But he added, “The embassy contacts would certainly be informational and nothing else--as far as telling the South Africans how to solve their problems.”

President Reagan plans to leave his ranch today for the first time since he began his vacation. He is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles in the late afternoon and to remain until about midday Friday, playing host to a family dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel tonight, attending private dinner parties Wednesday and Thursday nights and making remarks Thursday evening at a state Republican Party fund-raiser.