De Klerk Plans Strong Action to Halt Violence : South Africa: Mandella says the president agrees that a ‘hidden hand’ is behind the recent bloodshed--not merely simple rivalries.

President Frederik W. de Klerk told Nelson Mandela on Friday that he will begin a wide-ranging plan next week to curb escalating violence, and Mandela said the president now agrees with him that a “hidden hand” is behind the latest bloodshed.

“The government is convinced that this is no longer a clash between black and black, between Inkatha and African National Congress, or between Zulu and Xhosa,” Mandela said De Klerk told him. “There is some hidden hand here which the government intends to track down.”

In a brief statement, De Klerk said he intended to “take strong and comprehensive action” to stop the carnage, adding that some measures already had been implemented. He did not disclose details of the plan, which government officials said would probably be announced early next week.

“The offenders, whoever they may be, will be firmly dealt with,” De Klerk said. He urged community leaders to abstain from blaming one another and the police for the violence, which he attributed simply to “forces which do not wish peaceful negotiations to succeed.”

The government’s actions have been triggered by a sinister change in the nature of the warfare this week as heavily armed and well-trained groups of blacks made random attacks on trains, taxi stands and sidewalks.

On Thursday evening, a six-man gang wordlessly shot and butchered commuters in three cars of a train as it carried them home from Johannesburg, killing 26 and injuring more than 100 before fleeing into the night.

That incident followed consecutive nighttime attacks by groups of blacks and whites armed with automatic rifles, flare guns and grenades on a squatter camp this week in Tokoza, southeast of Johannesburg. Several dozen people died and more than 800 shacks were burned down. In downtown Johannesburg this week, three black pedestrians were killed in random shootings by four black men cruising in a van.

When asked what message he had for anxious blacks, Mandela said: “If I had anything to say to the people in the township, it is that they should take means to defend themselves.”

Mandela noted that many township residents have asked the ANC to provide them with weapons to protect themselves.

“We are considering seriously the demand people have made that they should arm themselves,” he said. “We consider that demand a reasonable one.”

The recent wave of trouble, in which 800 have been killed, began last month in Johannesburg-area townships with attacks and counterattacks by large mobs armed with homemade spears and machetes--battles attributed to animosity between migrant Zulu workers who support the Inkatha Freedom Party and residents who support the African National Congress.

Mandela, at a news conference Friday, said the new face of the violence suggested the existence of paramilitary units such as the right-wing band known as Renamo, whose brutal attacks on civilians in neighboring Mozambique have caused 15 years of political instability.

De Klerk said the violent events of the last week, during which 200 blacks have died, “have brought our country to an unfortunate turning point.”

“Those responsible are greatly mistaken if they believe that the government’s search for a peaceful solution is a password to lawlessness, unrest and murder,” he added.

Mandela said he welcomed what he characterized as De Klerk’s change of heart about the causes of the violence.