‘Overwhelmed’ by Warm Reception, Mandela Says

Nelson R. Mandela, patiently answering questions from reporters under a shade tree, said Monday that he has been “completely overwhelmed by the enthusiasm” of South Africans’ welcome after 27 years in prison.

“It is something I did not expect,” said the 71-year-old leader, sitting with his wife at his side on his first full day of freedom. “I must confess that I am unable to describe my emotions. It was breathtaking, that’s all I can say.”

A relaxed Mandela, sounding more conciliatory than he did in a speech delivered Sunday, covered a wide range of topics in a 45-minute news conference in the back yard of Archbishop Desmond M. Tutu’s sprawling church residence in a white suburb of Cape Town.

Mandela left open the possibility that his African National Congress might compromise on its demand for a one-man, one-vote system here. He acknowledged the contribution whites have made toward developing the country and praised President Frederik W. de Klerk while expressing reservations about the policies of De Klerk’s ruling National Party.

He also said that his personal talks with the government, conducted over a three-year period in prison, are finished for now.

“In a sense, I have been acting as a mediator, because I believe that the first step toward a solution of our problems is a meeting between the ANC and the government,” he said. “But now that I am released, it is for the ANC to determine what role I should play.”

Before the news conference, Mandela’s first in three decades, he and his wife, Winnie, strolled around Tutu’s lush yard, posing for photographers from hundreds of newspapers and television stations around the world.

Later, he smiled as he revealed that a meeting secretly scheduled between himself and De Klerk on Feb. 1 was scuttled “because you people knew about it and you made it impossible for us to meet.”

A close follower of current events while in prison, Mandela warmly greeted some of his questioners whose names he recognized from local newspapers and radio stations. When one radio journalist identified himself to ask a question, Mandela joked: “I thought you were big and fat.”

Mandela, wearing a gray pin-striped suit and tie, was joined at the podium by his longtime confidant, Walter Sisulu, one of seven ANC leaders freed from prison in October. Mandela confirmed that he had negotiated with the government for the release of Sisulu and the others.

But he said that in countless other discussions with “a number of government ministers,” he had been acting “purely as a facilitator to bring these two major political organizations to the negotiating table.” And he said that the ANC leadership in Lusaka, Zambia, “has actually been instructing me what to do, what views to put forward.”

Mandela repeated the ANC’s refusal to negotiate until the government removes the 3 1/2-year-old state of emergency and frees prisoners convicted of politically inspired crimes. But he expressed confidence that the end of the emergency regulations, which give police sweeping powers to act against political unrest, will soon be realized.

Mandela also said he believes that De Klerk, who has instituted broad reforms to open the way for black political expression in recent weeks, “wants to normalize the situation as soon as possible. If he is able to carry the (ruling) National Party with him . . . I think that very soon the obstacles to negotiation will be removed and it will be possible for us to sit down and talk.”

State-run television aired about five minutes of the press conference on its evening, Afrikaans-language newscast, focusing on Mandela’s reassurances to whites and his assessment of De Klerk.

Asked about the gap between ANC’s ultimate demand for a one-person, one-vote system in South Africa and the government’s insistence on guarantees to protect the rights of the white minority, Mandela said that the ANC wants to address white concerns.

“We understand those feelings, and the ANC (wants) to find a solution that will suit both the blacks and the whites of this country,” he said. “Whites are fellow South Africans, and we want them to feel safe and (know) that we appreciate the contribution they have made toward the development of this country.”

One of the things that made South Africa “totally different” from when he went to prison in 1964, Mandela said, was the number of whites now involved in the black liberation struggle. When his car passed throngs of well-wishers as he left prison on Sunday, he said, he was surprised to see many whites in the crowd.

“I expected that response from blacks, but the number of whites who seem to feel that a change is absolutely imperative surprised me,” he said.

Mandela said that the ANC “would seize the earliest opportunity of settling our problems through peaceful means” but added that the armed struggle launched as a defensive measure against the violence of apartheid and the campaign for sanctions would be intensified until the government “normalizes the situation.”

“You must remember that the demand in this country is for a nonracial society,” he said. “And we are very far from that.”

Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha said later that he is not worried by Mandela’s expressions of support for armed struggle because the black nationalist leader has committed himself, in his press conference Monday as well as in his speech a day earlier, to a peaceful resolution of the country’s problems.

“I really believe that we should look at his statement as a whole and not pick out individual sentences to try to push a particular point of view,” Botha told an interviewer on British Broadcasting Corp. television.

Mandela said that he found the hundreds of protest rallies in recent months “breathtaking and very inspiring. It is clear now that the masses of the people . . . are no longer prepared to wait for the government to free them.”

Mandela said De Klerk, with whom he has met twice in the past three months, “has been very flexible.” But he said he has seen little evidence so far that the president’s National Party has changed its policy.

The former prisoner played down his own role in forcing the recent government reforms.

“My impression is that for some time there have been men inside the National Party who felt that a change was absolutely necessary,” he said. “I may have contributed in some small way, because for the first time the government had the opportunity of getting our point of view from us directly.”

SOUTH AFRICA SANCTIONS

The President is empowered to suspend or modify sanctions against South Africa, 30 days after certifying to Congress that Mandela and other prisoners have been freed, that three of four other listed conditions have been met and that the government has made “substantial progress” toward dismantling apartheid and setting up a non-racial democracy.

But Congress may overrule the President by joint resolution. The 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act imposes these specific sanctions:

A ban on the importation from South Africa of agricultural products, textiles, uranium and uranium ore, iron, steel and coal.

Prohibition of South African Airways from operating in the United States and barring of any U.S. airliner from taking off and landing in South Africa.

A ban on importation of articles made by South African government-controlled organizations, with the exception of certain strategic minerals.

An end to new U.S. loans to South African businesses or to the government, and an end to new U.S. private investments in South Africa.

A ban on South African government deposits in U.S. banks.

The shutdown of U.S. oil exports to South Africa. The conditions South Africa must meet and that President Bush must certify before lifting or modifying the sanctions are:

Freedom for African National Congress leader Nelson R. Mandela and all other political prisoners. (Although Mandela has been freed, others still are held.)

Repeal of the declared state of emergency and freedom for all persons detained under the declaration.

Legal status for all democratic political parties and for democratic political activities by everyone.

Repeal of the Group Areas Act and the Population Registration Act, which restrict where nonwhites can live and work.

Agreement to enter into good-faith negotiations with representative black leaders without preconditions.

Source: Times wire services