U.S. Welcomes Move but Will Retain Curbs

The United States welcomed South Africa’s decision Thursday to lift emergency rule in most areas but said it still has not fulfilled the conditions necessary for Washington to lift economic sanctions against the white-minority government.

“This is another significant step towards creating a climate conducive for negotiations that will lead to a democratic, nonracial South Africa,” the White House said in a statement issued aboard President Bush’s aircraft as he flew to a speaking engagement in Wisconsin.

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher noted that the steps were not enough under U.S. law for the Bush Administration to ask Congress to lift sanctions against South Africa.

“The conditions laid down in the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 must be met before we can suspend or modify the sanctions,” he said.

“Specifically now, we’ll have to look at the legal implications of continuing the state of emergency in Natal. The law also requires that all political prisoners must be released and this has not yet happened.”

Boucher said it is clear that Pretoria’s moves in recent months, particularly the release of black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of the African National Congress, have transformed the situation.

He said the government has now met most ANC conditions to open negotiations on a political settlement for South Africa.

Randall Robinson, director of the black American lobby TransAfrica, said U.S. sanctions must stay in place until there is irreversible progress toward dismantling apartheid, South Africa’s system of racial separation.

“This is a tiny measure and a little late, considering the distance that must be traveled,” Robinson said, adding that De Klerk’s announcement is little more than a public relations ploy aimed at ending U.S. sanctions.

Robinson said that as long as 2,000 to 3,000 political prisoners remain in South African jails, political trials continue and repressive legislation remains in force, there can be little change.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) said: “Retention of the current sanctions is the best guarantee that progress will continue toward the goal of a free and democratic Africa.”