U.S. Offers to Mediate for S. Africa, Blacks

The Bush Administration congratulated South Africa’s ruling party for its election victory and offered Thursday to serve as mediator between the government and the black majority.

“We are committed to working with all parties to bring the South African government and black South Africans together in a substantial effort to end apartheid,” State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said. “We therefore are prepared to work with the new government toward this end.”

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said Bush sent a personal telegram of congratulations to acting President Frederik W. de Klerk, although Fitzwater insisted that such messages are “relatively routine,” even in elections that Washington considers to be less than democratic.

Tutwiler declined to say if the United States is ready to lift its economic sanctions against South Africa.

In a formal statement reacting to the ruling National Party’s narrow victory in Wednesday’s election, the Administration underlined its objections to the apartheid system of racial segregation. But the statement also echoed Bush’s congratulations to the ruling party for winning an election that the U.S. government had earlier decried as unfair and unrepresentative because blacks were denied a right to vote.

“We congratulate acting President De Klerk on his party’s victory at the polls and for leading his party to win its mandate for real change in South Africa,” Tutwiler said.

Reminded that Washington has seldom used such warm language in reference to South Africa’s tightly segregated political system, Tutwiler replied: “You keep focusing on congratulations. The message is a two-page message. There’s more than just congratulations.”

Fitzwater added that U.S. policy toward South Africa is essentially unchanged.

“I would not characterize these telegrams as any different from those sent to other heads of state in the same situation,” he said. However, Fitzwater agreed with a questioner who noted that no similar telegram was sent to Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani after his recent electoral victory.

Tutwiler emphasized that the Administration’s offer of cooperation is conditioned on the De Klerk government’s taking prompt action to bring the country’s black majority into the political system.