Mandela Rebuffs Bid to Resume Reform Talks : South Africa: He urges De Klerk instead to address demands of ANC.

In their continuing war of letters, Nelson Mandela on Thursday refused President Frederik W. de Klerk’s invitation for face-to-face talks and suggested that De Klerk instead “find a way to address the demands we have placed before you.”

More than two weeks have passed since the African National Congress broke off talks with the government, demanding that De Klerk take aggressive steps to end township violence and abandon attempts to give the white minority an effective veto over the constitution-writing process.

Now the negotiation process in South Africa has been reduced to public exchanges of long letters. In short, the government has declined to respond specifically to ANC demands and instead asked for talks to discuss them. The ANC says it won’t talk until De Klerk addresses the demands.

“We urge you to desist from this course,” Mandela wrote De Klerk on Thursday. “Find a way within yourself to recognize the gravity of the situation. Find a way to address (our) demands . . . so that negotiations can become meaningful.”

The government’s initial response to Mandela’s letter was conciliatory. While saying that exchanges of memos are no substitute for talks, Constitutional Affairs Minister Roelf Meyer said the ANC “has raised a number of matters of justifiable concern to all parties.”

But he criticized the ANC for refusing to discuss the township violence with the government and the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Zulu-based group whose supporters have been implicated along with ANC backers in the carnage.

And Meyer said the government is “gravely concerned” that the ANC is trying to impose its views on blacks with mass protests, demonstrations, sit-ins and strikes, rather than seeking solutions through negotiations.

Mandela, in his 22-page response to De Klerk’s 31-page letter of last week, said face-to-face talks with the government at this stage would be “entirely unacceptable.”

“We would sit down to do no more than haggle about what should constitute the agenda, rather than the serious business of taking our country to a democracy and developing firm foundations for eliminating violence,” he said.

Mandela chided De Klerk for refusing to adequately address key ANC demands, including that the government take steps to end covert security force operations, investigate police and soldiers alleged to be involved in township violence and implement agreements to fence off and eventually close migrant worker hostels.

De Klerk has gone part way to meeting one ANC demand by adding an Indian judge and two British police to a judicial commission. But the ANC wants a fully international commission to investigate and monitor the violence.

On the negotiations deadlock, Mandela noted that the ANC and the government have agreed to a transitional process leading to a new constitution. What they still disagree about is what type of body will draw up that constitution and how it will function.

On that issue, the ANC showed signs of compromise Thursday. It said it now favors a single constitution-writing body, half of whose delegates would be elected in a national election, with the rest elected by regions.

Panel decisions would require a two-thirds majority. And, under the ANC proposal, aspects of the constitution affecting regional governments’ powers would require separate endorsement by the regional half of the constitution-writing body, also by a two-thirds majority.

The ANC proposal closes a gap with De Klerk by giving whites and other minorities substantial power to block constitutional provisions inimical to their interests.