US POLICY ON S. AFRICA IS IMMORAL, TUTU SAYS

Author: Associated Press

Date: Wednesday, December 5, 1984
Page: 24
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN

Reagan's chief spokesman said no meeting was planned.

Bishop Tutu brought members of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa to their feet, in a standing ovation unusual for a congressional hearing, after saying the Administration's policy of quiet diplomacy toward the white minority-ruled nation "is giving democracy a bad name."

"We are talking about a moral issue," the bishop-designate of Johannesburg said, declaring that South Africa's apartheid policy of racial segregation "is evil, is immoral, is un-Christian, without remainder.

"In my view, the Reagan Administration's support and collaboration with it is equally immoral, evil and totally un-Christian," Bishop Tutu said.

"You are either for or against apartheid, and not by rhetoric. You are either in favor of evil, or you are in favor of good. You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral."

Bishop Tutu told the lawmakers that the Administration's policy of ''constructive engagement," or low-key diplomacy, "has encouraged the white racist regime (of South Africa) into escalated intransigence and oppression.

"I will not see any officials of the Reagan Administration, as of today, unless constructive engagement is abandoned," he said. "I may see the President of this country, or the Secretary of State, if they do invite me to meet with them."

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who joined House members at the hearing, said he would ask other senators to join him in a letter urging Reagan to meet with Bishop Tutu. "I hope you are able to persuade the Administration that their course is wrong," he told the bishop.

But at the White House, deputy press secretary Larry Speakes told reporters, "There are no plans to meet." He said Reagan had sent Bishop Tutu a "warm congratulatory message" when the bishop was announced the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

On Monday, Assistant Secretary of State Chester Crocker, after meeting with the President, told reporters that the Administration's policy is "not embracing of any status quo," and added, "I would say the description of our policy as ineffective is rubbish."

Bishop Tutu, however, told the House subcommittee, "Four years ago, I said apartheid was an unmitigated disaster for blacks. I have no reason to alter my assessment, despite what Dr. Chester Crocker is reported to have said . . . This is the kind of administration (in South Africa) that the Reagan Administration is encouraging and supporting.

". . . We shall be free, and we will remember who helped us to become free. That is not a threat, just a statement of fact. And we want so desperately to be friends of the United States."

Asked what would happen in South Africa if US policy does not change, the bishop said, "I am fearful for what will happen to white people . . . I am fearful for what will happen when the worm turns."

Bishop Tutu is scheduled to receive the Nobel Prize in Oslo, Norway, next week.

AA0611;12/04,14:31 NKELLY;12/06,11:50 TUTU05