Botha, Tutu Meet; No Accord on Emergency

Black Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu said he asked President Pieter W. Botha in a meeting today to end the national state of emergency, withdraw troops from black townships, free detainees and lift bans on political organizations. Botha refused.

“The state president did not agree with me that the situation is deteriorating,” Tutu said after the nearly two-hour meeting in the president’s office at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.

“It was a very friendly exchange, frank,” said Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize winner and an anti-apartheid leader. “Both of us--we didn’t mince words. My own position with regard to sanctions also came into view.”

The emergency decree issued June 12 forbids calling for economic sanctions against South Africa, as several nations have threatened to do unless the apartheid system of racial separation is scrapped.

Botha, in a statement released by the government hours after the meeting, said: “I told Bishop Tutu that I expect it of him as a South African to take a stand rejecting the imposition of sanctions, and that I expect it from him to stand up against foreign intervention in the affairs of the country.”

Not Representative of All

He also said he regarded Tutu a representative of only a segment of the nation’s churches and “the views expressed by individual church spokesmen cannot be regarded as more than just a reflection of a part of the diversity.”

Tutu and Botha last met June 13, the day after the state of emergency was declared.

At the end of the meeting today, Botha led Tutu into a roomful of photographers and said: “They want your image and my image together.”

When asked to describe his day, Tutu said: “It could have been better. I’m like a schoolmaster, aren’t I? The student is a good student but he could do better.”

The bishop said Botha noted that after a previous state of emergency was lifted in March there was an outburst of violence, prompting the latest decree.

Enough Other Laws

“My own position is that there are enough laws for people to be dealt with without recourse to detention without trial,” Tutu said. Monitoring groups have estimated about 5,000 people were detained under the emergency decree.

Tutu said he asked about the detention of certain church people, and the president promised a response from government ministers.

Asked if he believed the meeting achieved anything, Tutu replied: “To the extent that there are issues that (Botha) would like to be referred to specific ministers, in relation to the education crisis and the matter of detainees--yes, yes.

“The fact that the state president is willing to discuss is a plus.”