Word: klerk
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...organization' moral trump card--divestment from South Africa--has been weakened by a series of South African political moves, including the release of Nelson Manuela and the passage of the De Klerk referendum...
...only whites, but a majority in all racial groups voted for a unified, multiracial South African democracy. The Indian and mixed-blood populations have long supported integration with whites, and many observers believe that if given the chance, they would vote for President F.W. de Klerk and the National Party...
...speech announcing the "yes" vote in the referendum, President de Klerk said, "It doesn't often happen that in one generation a nation gets the opportunity to rise above itself." The U.S. has already risen above itself twice during the Bush administration alone: in repelling Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and in creating a Marshall-type aid program for the consolidation of democracy in Russia...
Fortunately de Klerk's gamble paid off, but the considerable doubt, even at a late stage in the polling, as to the outcome, attests to the strength of the bury-you-head-in-the-sand mentality that had allowed white South Africans to resist outside pressures for reform for so long...
Topping the list of alternatives is outside assistance to alleviate the economic pressures that pushed De Klerk into the corner that forced the referendum. The country is hard hit economically--unemployment runs at 43 percent and drought has decimated crop harvests. De Klerk and Mandela recently made an unprecedented joint call for much-needed foreign investment in the country. Monetary aid would help the country's most pressing financial problems. The recent admission of South Africa into the International Monetary Fund is a definite step in the right direction...