Mandela Promises New Talks With De Klerk

Nelson Mandela, concluding a six-week, 14-country tour of North America, Europe and Africa, returned home Wednesday on his 72nd birthday, promising to meet with President Frederik W. de Klerk within days to discuss a new round of peace talks.

“We with the African National Congress are very keen” to clear the remaining obstacles to formal negotiations, Mandela told an airport news conference.

ANC leaders hailed Mandela’s tour as a success, pointing out that the ANC obtained promises from many governments not to relax economic sanctions against Pretoria and was able to raise millions of dollars for its coffers.

One of the difficulties Mandela still faces at home was highlighted hours before his return when gunmen ambushed a bus and forced it off the road in Natal province, killing at least 25 people and injuring dozens of others. The police said the incident followed an outbreak of political violence the night before.

Natal has been the scene of repeated clashes between feuding supporters of the ANC and the Inkatha movement of Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi. More than 3,000 people have died in the internecine fighting in the past three years, and the war has heightened in the months since February, when Mandela was released from prison.

The inability of the warring black factions to end the violence in Natal threatens South Africa’s fledgling peace process. Mandela has blamed the apartheid system for creating the climate for feuding in Natal, and he has called on the government to put a stop to it. The government contends that the ANC’s refusal to abandon its armed struggle has exacerbated the problems in Natal.

Another threat to peace is the rise of right-wing violence and threats against both Mandela and De Klerk. The police say a series of bomb blasts in recent days, which have killed three people, may have been carried out by militant whites.

On Wednesday, an ANC regional office in Johannesburg received an anonymous letter threatening “a few surprises . . . on your leader’s aeroplane and at the airport.” It threatened to destroy the ANC and suggested that “innocent people (could) become the targets.”

Mandela arrived safely in Johannesburg from Maputo, Mozambique, after changing aircraft because of what the ANC described as a mechanical problem. About 250 heavily armed police officers were stationed at the airport here, and several hundred supporters gathered outside to welcome him.

ANC leaders inside the terminal building sang “Happy Birthday.”

“I feel like a boy of 36,” Mandela said. The ANC leader, who was hospitalized briefly in Nairobi last week for a mild case of pneumonia, appeared rested and alert.

Asked what he wants for his birthday, Mandela responded, “The present I would like is votes for all.”