Tutu Calls Sanctions Moral Issue, Chides Reagan for Veto

Archbishop Desmond Tutu sharply rebuked President Reagan on Friday for the President’s decision to veto a bill that would impose strong economic sanctions against South Africa.

“As a victim of apartheid, I would say that he doesn’t feel, he doesn’t think that I am human, as human as a white person,” Tutu, the Anglican prelate of South Africa, said in an interview broadcast by Cable News Network. The interview was conducted by telephone from Cape Town, South Africa.

Asked what he would say to Reagan if he were in the Oval Office as Reagan was preparing to sign the veto, Tutu replied: “I’d say, sir, you have to make a moral decision. Are you on the side of justice or injustice? Are you on the side of the oppressed or are you on the side of the oppressor? Know that you are going to have to make a moral decision.”