Commonwealth to Lift Cultural and Travel Sanctions Against S. Africa

The Commonwealth, an organization of Britain and its former colonies, said Friday it will lift cultural and travel sanctions on South Africa but maintain investment bans until apartheid is dismantled entirely.

Britain, however, said it wants the 50-nation organization to go even further and immediately remove the economic sanctions as well. It indicated that it may not sign the final communique on the matter before the weeklong summit ends Tuesday.

The Commonwealth includes Britain and its former colonies, most of them Third World nations. It has been the foremost international organization in pressing sanctions to end white-minority rule in South Africa.

“It has been unanimously agreed to lift all restrictions on people-to-people contact immediately,” Indian Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao told reporters in announcing the decision. “The door is open. The stage is set for closer interaction.”

South African black leader Nelson Mandela has been attending the Commonwealth summit as an observer. He said Thursday that he had no quarrel with phasing out sanctions--as long as the main ones involving economic embargoes remain until South Africa adopts a non-racial constitution.