Bush Seeks to End S. Africa Sanctions : Apartheid: The Administration expects to act as soon as it can demonstrate that legal tests for lifting the curbs have been met. Opposition cites ‘political prisoners.’

Bush Administration officials said Tuesday they have begun talks with the South African government aimed at lifting U.S. sanctions against that country, and the White House is eyeing a mid-July target for ending the 4-year-old economic restrictions.

Although the move is likely to trigger considerable political controversy, President Bush “has very strong feelings” that sanctions should be lifted just as soon as the Administration can demonstrate that South Africa has met the legal tests for doing so, a senior Administration official said.

Bush and his aides believe those tests already have been met and, on the domestic front, will be moving to convince Congress of that. The conditions were set down in the sanctions law, which took effect Jan. 1, 1987.

The Administration push to end the sanctions comes in the wake of Monday’s repeal by South Africa of the last major apartheid law, the Population Registration Act. Administration discussions with the South Africans now focus on the issue of political prisoners. The Administration is seeking to build a case that South Africa has, in fact, released all those who meet the White House’s definition of a person jailed for a “political” offense.

“My guess is that all prisoners under our definition have been released,” the senior official said. At most, “less than 100” prisoners may remain in the “gray area” of people jailed for acts that were partially political and partially not, the official added.

By contrast, the African National Congress and anti-apartheid groups in the United States argue that several thousand prisoners remain jailed in South Africa for political crimes.

The difference in views stems from the Administration’s refusal to consider as “political prisoners” those people who were convicted of violent acts. The ANC argues that many of those people, including those convicted of bombings, shootings and other acts of violence, were politically motivated.

The ANC and the South African government have been negotiating for months over the proper definition of a political prisoner, but Administration officials stress that Bush will base his decision on the White House’s own definition.

The Administration is asking the ANC and other groups to submit names of prisoners who fit the U.S. definition and then will review each case with the South African government, Administration officials said. The intent will be to demonstrate to undecided members of Congress that the prisoner issue has been satisfactorily resolved.

But even as discussions begin with the South African government on the prisoner issue, senior congressional Democrats warned that they will fight any move to lift the sanctions. “We do not intend to sit quietly” if Bush “prematurely revokes the sanctions,” Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) declared in a lengthy Senate speech on the issue Tuesday.

Kennedy and others argue that South Africa has not yet come close to meeting the conditions laid down in the law for lifting sanctions. And they threaten to take Bush to court if he declares the conditions met.

U.S. courts, however, traditionally have refused to get involved in foreign policy disputes between the White House and Congress. And within Congress, support for continued sanctions seems to have dwindled.

“I think the President will get some support in Congress,” said California Rep. Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton), who supports continued sanctions. South African President Frederik W. de Klerk “is a very impressive man; a lot of people have been swayed by his charm,” Dymally said.

The Administration’s position will probably be bolstered further this week as Zulu chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi tours Washington and meets Bush on Thursday. Buthelezi, who met with members of Congress on Tuesday, called for an end to the sanctions in a speech earlier in the day.

Although Buthelezi’s followers in the Zulu-based Inkatha movement have been engaged in bloody battles with ANC members, his support for repealing sanctions could ease the way for some members of Congress to follow his advice. The lawmakers can argue that not all black South African leaders support continued sanctions.

The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act imposed sanctions and provided that they would stay in effect until South Africa ended the country’s state of emergency; removed the ban on the ANC and other black political organizations; opened good-faith negotiations between the government and representatives of the black majority; repealed the three major apartheid laws, and released all political prisoners.

Under the terms of the law, if Bush certifies that the conditions have been met, the sanctions will end. Congress could vote to overturn Bush’s action, but the President presumably would veto any such move.

The Administration maintained in April that the first three of the conditions had been met. And Monday’s repeal of the Population Registration Act--one of the pillars of South Africa’s apartheid system--coupled with the overturning earlier this month of two other apartheid laws, met the fourth condition, in the Administration’s view. That leaves only the political prisoner issue to be resolved.

But supporters of the sanctions argue that the conditions have not been met. De Klerk’s government has not truly entered good-faith negotiations, they say. Also, supporters of sanctions say the South African government has retained restrictions on exiled members of the ANC, thereby keeping the ban on the party at least partially in place, and has also only partially repealed the apartheid laws.

“The basic life for blacks in South Africa has not changed,” said Dymally. “I’d like to see sanctions stay” until a new government is formed under a new non-racial constitution. “Then we can lift sanctions.”

Bush, however, has rejected that argument, saying it amounts to unfairly “moving the goal posts.”