Common Market Leaders Call on S. Africa to Release Mandela

Leaders of the 12 Common Market countries today called on South Africa to release jailed black leader Nelson Mandela and other black opposition leaders or face the possibility of economic sanctions.

The 12 leaders, ending a two-day summit, said British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe will visit South Africa in hopes of establishing a dialogue between the white leadership and black South African leaders.

The summit agreement fell short of comprehensive economic sanctions urged by some leaders but opposed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The leaders said in a statement that within the next three months they will decide “on further measures which might be needed, covering, in particular, a ban on new investments (and) the import of coal, iron, steel and gold coins from South Africa.”

They also agreed to give “financial and material assistance” to those left homeless by recent fighting in the black shantytown of Crossroads near Cape Town, and to give legal aid to “political prisoners, including those arrested in connection with the recent reimposition of the state of emergency” on June 12.