132-Nation Meeting Urges Sweeping, Mandatory Sanctions

An international conference attended by 132 nations called Friday for comprehensive, mandatory economic sanctions against South Africa as the only alternative to further violence in the troubled nation.

A declaration adopted at the end of the five-day U.N. conference on sanctions against South Africa expressed “deep concern and dismay” that the U.N. Security Council had failed to adopt such sanctions.

The United States, Britain and West Germany--South Africa’s main trading partners--did not take part in the conference. The United States and Britain have vetoed Security Council resolutions on sanctions in recent weeks, saying such measures would harm the black population of southern Africa and ruin South Africa’s economy.

The declaration criticized the Reagan Administration’s policy of “constructive engagement” toward South Africa as unproductive and urged the United States and Britain to reassess their positions.

It also expressed concern at the “grave consequences” of what it called Israel’s collaboration with South Africa, “especially in the nuclear field.”

The conference declaration said the alternative to sanctions is escalating violence and bloodshed. About 1,800 people, most of them blacks, have died in South Africa since September, 1984, in violence related to anti-apartheid unrest.

Apartheid “must be totally uprooted and destroyed,” the declaration said.

The conference urged South Africa to immediately release black leader Nelson Mandela and all other political prisoners.