SOUTH AFRICA : Sanctions Hinge on ‘Political Prisoner’ Issue

PRETORIA, South Africa —  As the legal cornerstones of apartheid disappeared this week, the fate of U.S. sanctions and, more significantly, of black-white negotiations began to revolve around a bitterly disputed question: Who is a political prisoner?

President Bush and the South African government believe that all true “prisoners of conscience” have been released, which would meet a key condition for removing U.S. congressional sanctions.

But the African National Congress, the government’s main black opposition, Thursday counted 1,000 remaining political prisoners, including 15 of the ANC’s own foot soldiers. Even if U.S. sanctions are lifted over the ANC’s objections, those prisoners will continue to prevent government power-sharing talks with the ANC.

“If the government fails to release these people, the fact is that the ANC will not negotiate,” said Paula McBride, an official with Lawyers for Human Rights. “So, whether U.S. sanctions are lifted or not, what kind of future are we looking at?”

Although ANC leader Nelson Mandela has been willing to compromise with the government on many issues, he says he will not compromise on who is--and who is not--a political prisoner. The ANC agreed to suspend its armed struggle last year only in exchange for a promise to release political prisoners by the end of last April.

Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison, has spoken with inmates often, guaranteeing them that the ANC will not negotiate with President Frederik W. de Klerk unless the prisoners are freed. It is the one issue on which almost all ANC members agree; some say the delays are a sign that the government is insincere about reform.

The government said this week that it has released 1,022 prisoners and still is considering amnesty applications of 351 others convicted of crimes such as murder, robbery and aggravated assault. Those convicted in these serious cases, officials said, “cannot be summarily released” without considering how that would affect society.

The ANC says the remaining political prisoners fall into two broad categories: Members of the ANC guerrilla army Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) who committed violent acts on commanders’ orders, and members of anti-apartheid organizations who committed crimes during the general political uprising.

ANC officials say De Klerk’s prisoner release has been arbitrary. Many convicted of murders have been freed, for example, such as those implicated in the stoning death of a 3-year-old child and the burning death of a woman suspected of being a witch.

Gordon Webster, a former ANC military operative, was convicted of planting a mine that killed a white police colonel and maimed another policeman. He was released in May after he and more than 100 others staged a 24-day day hunger strike.

Three of the best-known prisoners in custody are ANC operatives Mthetheleli Mncube, Mzondeleli Nondula and Robert McBride. The ANC says they all are “clear-cut cases” of Spear of the Nation members who should be released.

Nondula and Mncube, now on Death Row, were part of an ANC guerrilla unit that planted land mines in the mid-1980s, killing six members of two white farm families and a black farm worker. Mncube also killed two white policemen. “Whatever happened, I was acting on orders from the ANC,” Mncube said recently. “I was a soldier. Anything I did was a mission of the ANC.”

McBride, who is of mixed race, planted a mine in Magoo’s Bar on the Durban beachfront in 1986, killing three white women. The government commuted his death sentence to life in prison last month.

“My feeling is that they will all be released. It’s just a question of when,” said Paula McBride. She was married to Robert McBride on Death Row two years ago.

But analysts say the issue is whether De Klerk is willing to risk the wrath of rightist whites by releasing blacks convicted of murdering police and white civilians.

So far, conservative whites’ reaction to the prisoners’ release has been muted, partly because white prisoners convicted of pro-apartheid crimes also have been released. De Klerk now faces demands from far-right groups for the release of Barend Strydom, a white man who opened fire on a Pretoria street, killing seven blacks.

U.S. Conditions

A 1986 law set five conditions before U.S. sanctions against South Africa could be lifted. All but one--the release of political prisoners--have been satisfied. The prisoner issue has been held up by a dispute over who qualifies as a political prisoner. Here are the four conditions already met by South Africa:

Repeal of a state of emergency and freedom for all those detained under it.

Legalization of democratic political parties and political activity for all.

Repeal of the Group Areas Act and the Population Registration Act, which restricted where nonwhites could live and work.

Agreement to enter into good-faith negotiations with representative black leaders without preconditions.