European Community Approves Sanctions on S. Africa

The European Community denounced South Africa’s apartheid system on Tuesday, and nine of the 10 nations agreed to a package of mildly punitive measures against the South African government.

Britain’s opposition prevented a unanimous agreement on the package, which included a ban on oil exports, a halt to all trade that could aid the South African military and police and a ban on new agreements on nuclear cooperation, said Foreign Minister Leo Tindemans of Belgium.

But the nine other member nations, plus representatives of Spain and Portugal, said they will implement the punitive actions and hope that Britain will change its mind.

On Monday, President Reagan announced some limited economic sanctions by the United States, including a ban on most loans to the South African government and a limit on trade in computers and nuclear technology.

U.S. Envoy Returns

The Common Market vote took place as the American ambassador returned to South Africa with a “very important message” from Reagan and a group of West German anti-apartheid demonstrators occupied their country’s embassy in Pretoria to protest its ties with the South African regime.

Beyond the sanctions vote, the Common Market officials also issued a political statement denouncing apartheid and calling for the release of all political prisoners, including black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela.

Tindemans said the sanctions are meant as a signal to South Africa that Europe will continue pressing for an end to the system of racial separation.

“If things don’t change, we will do more,” he said at the conclusion of nearly 10 hours of deliberations by foreign ministers of the 10 Common Market nations. Spain and Portugal participated because they are to join the community next January.

Short of Full Sanctions

The ministers never discussed imposing full-scale economic sanctions, such as halting all bank loans or severing all trade, according to officials from several delegations.

The Common Market has strong commercial links to South Africa. Last year its exports to that country totaled $5.8 billion and its imports totaled $7 billion, according to its figures.

Malcolm Rifkind, who represented Britain in the Luxembourg talks, said his government wants more time to study the possible effect of the measures on South Africa.

“It is not unreasonable that we should be able to study these measures in some depth,” he told reporters.

Britain did endorse the political statement calling for an end to apartheid. It also went along with a series of “positive” measures, among them a provision for programs designed to aid nonviolent anti-apartheid organizations such as churches and intensifying contacts with nonwhite groups.

List of Measures

Among the measures to be taken by the nine European Community countries are:

--An embargo on exports of arms and paramilitary equipment and a halt to imports of such equipment from South Africa.

--Refusal to cooperate on military matters and the recall of military attaches accredited to South Africa as well as the refusal to recognize South Africa’s military attaches in their countries.

--A total ban on oil exports to South Africa. Europe’s three main oil exporters, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark, already ban oil sales to South Africa.

--A ban on the export of sensitive equipment destined for the South African armed forces or police.

--Prohibition of all new agreements on nuclear cooperation.

In July, France suspended new investments in South Africa and recalled its ambassador as its own gesture against apartheid. Canada, Australia and several Scandinavian countries have also imposed limited sanctions against Pretoria.

Foreign Minister Jacques Poos of Luxembourg told reporters that European nations will be watching the situation in South Africa and may meet again to consider stronger measures.

“We haven’t said our last word on South Africa,” he said.

Returning to Johannesburg after consultations in Washington, U.S. Ambassador Herman Nickel told reporters at Jan Smuts Airport: “Negotiations have to be seen to be starting. Some of the features of the apartheid system have to be seen to be abolished. I think that is absolutely necessary.”

Reagan withdrew Nickel nearly three months ago, after South Africans were suspected of trying to blow up American oil facilities in Angola and after the June 14 South African commando strike on downtown Gaborone, the capital of neighboring Botswana.

“It is very important that the United States makes its disassociation from apartheid very plain,” Nickel added.

Under apartheid, South Africa’s legal system of segregation, 5 million whites rule 25 million voteless blacks. A year of anti-apartheid violence has killed nearly 700 people, most of them black.

‘Pushed World Too Far’

Meanwhile, Business Day, South Africa’s leading business newspaper, said the economic sanctions announced by Reagan show that the white-minority regime has “pushed the world too far.”

The U.S. sanctions were “more economically inconvenient than terminal,” the influential daily paper said, but then added, “The most powerful leader in the Western world is giving South Africa a clear and unequivocal political message: Reform must continue at a pace acceptable to the Western allies whether Pretoria likes it or not.”

Anti-apartheid groups have attacked the U.S. sanctions as cosmetic and inadequate.

In Pretoria, eight members of West Germany’s environmentalist Greens party, seven of them members of Parliament, began a two-day sit-in at their embassy to protest state-of-emergency regulations and to demand a halt to cultural ties between South Africa and West Germany.

Led by Petra Kelly

A spokesman for the embassy said the protesters, led by Petra Kelly, a Parliament member who helped found the party, locked themselves in a room at the mission after meeting with diplomats.