Bush Urged to Make Contact With Mandela

WASHINGTON — Eight former high government officials asked President Bush today to write to Nelson Mandela, the jailed South African black freedom leader whom American officials are not permitted to see, as a step toward nudging both sides in South Africa toward negotiations.

For Bush to contact Mandela “could well contribute to his release and return to political life,” the ex-officials said.

Their call for a U.S. role as a broker in the dispute between South Africa’s black majority and its white government was issued under the auspices of the Foreign Policy Institute.

Affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, the institute seeks consensus positions that can be endorsed by former officials representing a range of political philosophies.

The South African statement was signed by Harold Brown, former secretary of defense; William T. Coleman Jr., former transportation secretary; Barbara Jordan, former Democratic congresswoman from Texas; Melvin Laird, former defense secretary; Edmund S. Muskie, former secretary of state; Herman Nickel, the Reagan Administration’s ambassador to South Africa, and former Republican Sens. Charles Mathias of Maryland and Charles H. Percy of Illinois.