WORLD : Don’t Lift Sanctions--Mandela

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela warned today that blacks would turn South Africa “upside down” with protest and turmoil if world sanctions are eased before apartheid is abolished.

“You can expect that mass action in this country is going to be the order of the day,” said Mandela, deputy president of the African National Congress, if the 12-member European Community carries out its suggestion to end sanctions as a reward for President Frederik W. de Klerk’s intentions to scrap South Africa’s last race laws.

“If the EC wants this country to be turned upside down,” all it has to do is repeal the sanctions imposed in 1986 to protest segregation, Mandela said. Mandela made his comments at a news conference commemorating the first anniversary of his release after 27 years in prison.