DESMOND TUTU'S PRIZE

Author: Date: Wednesday, October 17, 1984
Page: 22
Section: EDITORIAL PAGE

The cheers in the huts of Soweto merged with the solemn approbation worldwide that greets the announcement of the 1984 Nobel Prize for Peace. Bishop Desmond Tutu was so honored by the Nobel board in Oslo yesterday in honor of the 53-year-old Anglican cleric's lifelong battle against apartheid.

As secretary general of the South African Council of Churches, Bishop Tutu has been criticized by some militants in the antiapartheid movement as well as stonewalled by the government. The Nobel prize will certainly make authorities there think twice before imprisoning or banning him.

The bishop of Lesotho has spent a lifetime trying to resolve the Christian aspirations of his flock with the cruel and wanton society imposed on South Africa's citizens by its government. Bishop Tutu was in the United States yesterday and said the award "acknowledges all those involved in the liberation of South Africa."

In reacting to the Nobel prize, the State Department congratulated Bishop Tutu, saying the US "supports peaceful change away from apartheid." The State Department and other American officials have generally not spoken out as vigorously about South Africa as they have about, say, Grenada. In this area, American opinion is seen by the State Department as best expressed in a low- key fashion, even if oppressed peoples hunger for such support. Earlier this year, South African newspapers headlined the mere mention of Bishop Tutu in the keyonote speech of New York Gov. Mario Cuomo before the Democratic National Convention.

In Poland yesterday, Lech Walesa also rejoiced, saying the prize recognized the same "striving for the restoration of social justice" as the movement for freedom in Poland. Such statements of solidarity, whether grudging or spontaneous, speak loud, joyful volumes to the silence of shame in Pretoria.

NOLAN ;10/16,15:11 NKELLY;10/18,14:28 ENOBEL