Apartheid Foes Demand ‘Results’ From De Klerk Before Beginning Negotiations

President Frederik W. de Klerk, in the highest-level talks with black anti-apartheid leaders in three years, told them today that he was ready to negotiate on black voting rights, but they demanded more concessions before serious talks begin.

The three-hour meeting with Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and two other church leaders came a day after De Klerk announced his decision to free eight longtime security prisoners, including seven leaders of the outlawed African National Congress.

“I hope today’s meeting will be looked on as a milestone on the positive road ahead,” De Klerk said after the talks.

But Tutu, the Rev. Allan Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Rev. Frank Chikane, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, said De Klerk declined to give clear-cut responses to their demands.

“We made it clear we need results,” Chikane said. “Without results, we can’t have negotiations.”

The clergymen demanded the lifting of the state of emergency, legalization of the African National Congress and other banned groups, the release of all detainees and political prisoners, the lifting of restrictions on political activity and clemency for prisoners on Death Row.

“If these things happen, we’ll say to our people: Give them (the government) a chance. They are serious,” Tutu said.

The clergymen said they will press on with calls for tougher economic sanctions against South Africa unless De Klerk complied with their demands.

De Klerk, who became president in August, said the clergymen were reluctant to trust his pledges to negotiate a new, just political system.