Word: klerk
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...tensely awaited speech, De Klerk last week went a long way toward accepting the demands listed by black opposition groups as conditions for the start of talks on a new constitution. Most important, he promised to release the world's most famous prisoner, Nelson Mandela, now in his 28th year of imprisonment, though he did not say when. De Klerk legalized more than 60 banned organizations, lifted emergency restrictions on the press and on 374 political activists, suspended executions and put a six-month limit on detentions without trial. He also promised to lift the remaining elements of the state...
Although the government had made a "firm decision" to release Mandela unconditionally and wanted to do so "without delay," De Klerk said, there were "factors in the way," including considerations of his "personal circumstances and safety." This sounds as if the government is still haunted by its old fears of upheavals in the townships and possible attempts on Mandela's life by extremists from left or right, for which the government would inevitably be blamed. It is also possible that De Klerk is still hoping for a formal renunciation of violence from the A.N.C. In any case, black leaders seemed...
...whole loaf, but De Klerk's speech delivered more than most veteran black leaders had expected. Popo Molefe, Secretary-General of the United Democratic Front, the largest domestic antiapartheid coalition, told the cheering Cape Town crowd that of all the white leaders, "De Klerk has taken the boldest step and is the most courageous." Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate, said the speech "has certainly taken my breath away," and his fellow campaigner, the Rev. Allan Boesak, was surprised "that he met so many of the demands...
Government leaders seemed convinced that De Klerk's concessions would now lead to the bargaining table. Contacts with black leaders will be "considerably broadened and expanded," said Minister of Constitutional Development and Planning Gerrit Viljoen. But he gave no specifics on how the white government might be prepared to compromise on its own fundamental policy of guaranteed rights for racial groups as well as individuals...
...A.N.C. leadership's response was cool. In a statement released in Stockholm, where Tambo is recuperating after a stroke, the Congress said De Klerk's steps were important but expressed concern that the state of emergency is still in place and that some of the government's opponents would continue to be detained. It said it would review the prospects for negotiation, but in the meantime asked all countries not to do "anything to lessen the isolation of the apartheid regime...