Shultz Warns S. African Rebel Against Violence : Secretary Condemns Tactic in Anti-Apartheid Battle; His Talks With Tambo Spark Protests

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, in a meeting that drew criticism from conservatives and brought chanting protesters to the State Department, warned militant South African black nationalist Oliver Tambo on Wednesday that the use of violence to combat the apartheid system of racial segregation “will only lead to a catastrophe for all.”

The warning appeared to have little effect, however, as comments from the two sides after the first, 50-minute encounter between Shultz and the principal opponent of South Africa’s white-led minority government reflected little agreement. Both men held to their previous positions on the issues of violence and the degree of Soviet influence within Tambo’s African National Congress.

For nearly 50 years, Tambo said he told Shultz, the ANC had used peaceful means to seek social justice and adopted armed tactics only in 1961 after the organization was outlawed by the government.

In the last two years, violence has escalated as black militants have assassinated blacks with ties to the white regime and have planted bombs in white areas.

“The way to end violence is to end apartheid,” Tambo declared at a news conference after the State Department session. “But I don’t think I convinced him,” he said of Shultz.

In addition to its opposition to the use of violence, Shultz made clear that the Reagan Administration is concerned “about the degree of Soviet influence in the ANC,” according to a State Department statement. This issue, as well as terrorist acts backed by the ANC, inspired protests from scores of U.S. conservatives against Tambo’s official reception here.

Outside the State Department, one conservative group staged mock “necklacings”--the method of execution in which flaming tires are placed around the heads of suspected collaborators, which has accounted for hundreds of deaths in black townships in South Africa.

About a dozen Tambo supporters conducted a counterdemonstration, chanting slogans.

On Capitol Hill, key lawmakers attacked the Shultz-Tambo session, which Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.) said could send the “wrong signal on terrorism.” Dole called on Shultz to demand that the ANC condemn terrorism, especially the so-called necklacings.

‘Racism Must Go’

“The question is not racism in South Africa. Racism must go. The question is not apartheid. Apartheid must go, too. The question is terrorism and whether the United States agrees that terrorism is a viable political tool. I don’t,” Dole said.

In the House, Rep. Jim Courter (R-N.J.) said that Tambo “represents everything we should not be working for in South Africa.” He characterized the ANC as a violent, predominantly Communist organization.

When asked about the charges of Soviet subversion of the ANC, Tambo said he told Shultz that the Soviet Union has no more influence over his organization than do Western European nations that have also supplied financial and material aid.

Almost the only area of agreement that emerged from Wednesday’s session appeared to have been on the kind of government that the ANC envisions in a majority-ruled South Africa. Tambo said “we didn’t seem to differ” over his goals of a multiracial society with multiple political parties and guaranteed individual freedom.