Archbishop’s Actions May Lead to Crackdown : Tutu Heats Up Tensions With S. Africa

Desmond M. Tutu removed the cap from his gray-flecked head and silenced the singing crowd with a raised hand. Then, as his loafers crunched on broken glass, he closed his eyes and prayed for “this house of peace, devastated by the bombs of the evil ones.”

Police in riot gear watched as the Anglican archbishop, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, addressed the crowd Friday from a scaffold outside Khotso House, the South African Council of Churches’ headquarters wrecked 10 days earlier by a powerful bomb.

Tutu’s prayer and tour of Khotso House highlighted a week of growing church-state tension in South Africa that many think will lead to a government crackdown on the few remaining voices of protest among the black majority.

The current round of confrontations began Sept. 4 when Tutu, speaking from the pulpit, defied the government by repeating a call for a boycott of next month’s municipal elections. Under the 27-month-old state of emergency, that is a subversive statement punishable by 10 years in jail or an $8,000 fine.

While the authorities were studying a tape recording of Tutu’s sermon, the archbishop again repeated his call at a service Thursday and at a news conference Friday.

“I am not defying the government,” Tutu declared. “I am obeying God.”

Other leading clergymen, including the Rev. Allan Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Rev. Frank Chikane, head of the South African Council of Churches, joined the boycott call last week.

Only a few days earlier, the police had raided the offices of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference. The week before last, Minister of Law and Order Adriaan Vlok threatened to crack down on church leaders who were “wolves in sheep’s clothing . . . hiding behind liberation theology.”

On Saturday, Vlok described Tutu as a “tragic and misled” person and said that revolutionaries have decided that the archbishop should “create incidents” to embarrass South Africa during the U.S. presidential campaign and the current visit to nearby countries by Pope John Paul II.

No Incidents

Friday’s spontaneous gathering of about 100 people on the downtown street outside Khotso House dispersed without incident. But an hour later, half a dozen plainclothes police officers forced their way into a nearby chapel where Tutu was holding a prayer service for the Council of Churches staff. The police videotaped Tutu’s remarks and left.

“Anybody who thinks we are hiding behind clerical garb has another think coming,” Tutu said Friday. “We will obey our Lord whatever the consequences because we are committed to a nonviolent, non-racial, democratic South Africa.”

Anti-apartheid church groups in South Africa have been spared in the government’s sweeping efforts this year to restrict the political activities of trade unions and other opposition groups. As a result, clergymen such as Tutu have emerged as the most visible black opponents of the government, and church-state relations have deteriorated.

Whites, blacks, Indians and mixed-raced Coloreds will have separate local elections Oct. 26. Many leaders among the black majority, which has no vote in national affairs, want to boycott the election because they consider black township councils a front for the government and its policies of racial segregation.

The government’s view is that black-run municipalities will be the building blocks of a new constitution in which blacks will one day have an advisory role in national affairs. It has invested hugely in the upcoming elections, from township development projects to advertising campaigns, hoping for a sign that blacks are willing to cooperate with the government.

The church call for an election boycott was first made in July by Tutu and 25 other church leaders, but the government took no legal action. No charges have been filed against Tutu either, but pro-government newspapers have said they are likely.

Tutu, 56, long has been a thorn in the government’s side because of his support for sanctions.

He argues that sanctions and election boycotts are two of the few means of nonviolent protest left in South Africa and that he and his fellow clergymen are a voice that would otherwise be denied millions of blacks.

“We are the only organizations left that can articulate the feelings of our people,” Tutu said, referring to the government’s clampdown on the United Democratic Front and 18 other anti-apartheid groups. “When your people are voiceless, you are meant to speak for them.”