U.S., Soviets Are Lectured by Mandela : Apartheid: The black nationalist boldly summons Baker and Shevardnadze to separate meetings.

South African black nationalist leader Nelson R. Mandela, savoring the sort of treatment usually reserved for a head of state, summoned Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze and Secretary of State James A. Baker III to a rented house Wednesday for back-to-back lectures on the evils of apartheid.

With Baker at his side, Mandela told reporters that the secretary of state’s planned meeting today in Cape Town with South African President Frederik W. de Klerk might cause the rest of the world to ease the pressure on the white minority government.

“We do not think that there has been any fundamental change in the policy of the (South African) government,” said Mandela, who was released last month after 27 years in a South African prison. “There is nothing which Mr. De Klerk has done up to now which would require a change of strategy on the part of the international community.

“The fact that the foreign secretary of a superpower now visits Mr. De Klerk can create a great deal of confusion, specifically that the Nationalist government has done something which requires a change of attitude on the part of the international community,” he said. “We regard that as regrettable.”

Baker responded that the Bush Administration approved his meeting with De Klerk in order to show support for “efforts (that) are being made in good faith to move the process forward in South Africa.”

“We believe it’s important to try and encourage that process to move forward,” Baker added.

Despite this difference of opinion, Mandela and Baker both said they are in complete agreement on the objective of replacing South Africa’s official policy of racial segregation with a non-racial democracy.

“I regard Mr. Baker, the American government, the Congress and the people of America as true friends,” said Mandela, deputy president of the African National Congress, the chief anti-apartheid organization opposing De Klerk’s government.

A spirited diplomatic byplay preceded the half-hour Baker-Mandela meeting.

Although U.S. officials were confident that the meeting could be arranged when both men were in Windhoek to attend Namibian independence ceremonies, the African National Congress avoided setting the date until late Tuesday. The agreement called for Mandela to call on Baker at the U.S. ambassador’s residence where the secretary of state was staying.

However, about five minutes before the scheduled 11:15 a.m. meeting, Mandela’s aides called the U.S. delegation to say that Mandela was running late and to ask if Baker would mind coming to him. American aides, putting the best face on the breach of diplomatic protocol, said Baker “gladly agreed.”

When reporters arrived at Mandela’s headquarters in a luxurious rented house a few blocks from the official U.S. residence, they encountered Shevardnadze, who was just leaving after his own audience with Mandela.

“It was a very good meeting,” Shevardnadze said.

Shevardnadze also held an hourlong meeting with De Klerk, who was in Windhoek to officially relinquish South African control of its former colony. De Klerk had insisted on meeting Baker in Cape Town, but presumably agreed to confer with Shevardnadze in Namibia because the Soviet official was unwilling to go to South Africa.

As Baker arrived at Mandela’s headquarters, the black leader said, “I’m very sorry that we had to make this arrangement, but we have a tight schedule.”

A senior State Department official later sought to focus attention on the “atmosphere of friendship” that surrounded the meeting.