Liberia's Leader Finds Himself With Few Allies

The small circle of confidants with whom President Samuel K. Doe has surrounded himself was notably smaller today with many of the palace regulars having left this capital in the face of an approaching insurgency. "A lot of them have just disappeared. They're fleeing a sinking ship," said a prominent politician here who, citing prudence, asked that his name not be used. He noted that the absence of these people became embarrassingly apparent last week when a rally in support of Mr. Doe was held on the steps of the presidential mansion. Members of the Liberian leader's family were there, but virtually all the members of his once closely knit political coterie were absent. With rebel forces advancing in recent days to a point within 35 miles of the capital, Mr. Doe is increasingly an isolated and besieged figure.

Among those who have not been seen here and are now believed to have fled the country is one of the President's closest friends and collaborators, J. Emmanuel Bowier, the Minister of Information. Other high-profile Government figures who have dropped out of sight are Emmanuel Shaw, the Minister of Finance, and Elijah Taylor, the Minister of Planning. "It's nearly impossible these days to get to someone who's really in charge," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country. "The whole Government seems to be run by acting ministers."

The leadership void is perhaps most noticeable in the Information Ministry, which seems rudderless since Mr. Bowier left for Washington a month ago as part of a delegation that sought to explain the fighting to American officials. Back in Monrovia, no news briefings were scheduled for weeks, and when official reports about the fighting were finally issued, they were widely regarded as unreliable. "We look to foreign sources to tell us what's happening in the war because the Government is always so slow, and in that climate a lot of rumors fly," said Winston Tubman, a lawyer and son of the late Liberian President, William V. S. Tubman.

A Western diplomat who has seen the President in recent days said "he is flying by the seat of his pants. He's getting information from a very narrow range of sources," the envoy added.

Initially, President Doe publicly dismissed the rebels as little more than an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained malcontents. This view was reinforced by some of the military advisers who repeatedly insisted that the rebels were on the verge of defeat. "He's been very badly informed about the war," said a politician who remains close to the President. He added that the problems are compounded because Mr. Doe has a low tolerance for criticism. The President, who was an army master sergeant when he led 17 noncommissioned officers in a coup 10 years ago in which President William R. Tolbert Jr. and others were bayoneted and shot to death on a beach below the executive mansion.

On seizing power, Sergeant Doe, an 11th-grade dropout who had been trained two years earlier by a United States Special forces unit, became the 20th Liberian head of state and the first one who was not a direct descendent of the freed American slaves who founded this country in 1847. During the early years of his presidency, Mr. Doe was helped by a group of young, educated civilian technocrats who included Charles Taylor, the man leading the rebels now, a force that calls itself the National Patriotic Front. Last June, after several years of night courses and private tutoring, Mr. Doe graduated from the University of Liberia, where he received a degree in political science. He wrote his senior thesis on relations between Liberia and the United States.

In a recent interview at a guest house near the executive mansion, Mr. Doe made clear his disdain for Mr. Taylor, referring to the man who had once served in his Cabinet as a fugitive from justice. In that conversation the President portrayed himself as a Liberian patriot. "I wanted you to know that there is nothing I love more than my country, and I want to do anything to bring peace," he said. He has also told associates, however, that the one thing he will not do is resign under pressure. "He was thrust into leadership at a relatively young age, with absolutely no preparation, so the pressures have been intense," a Western diplomat said. "Still, a lot of people don't understand him."

This diplomat reflected the views of several others when he described Mr. Doe as having a ruthless streak when dealing with his enemies. Mr. Doe is particularly bitter, according to several Liberians, about the growing disaffection of American officials with his Government. "Doe really believes that the United States is partially to blame for the Taylor invasion," a Liberian politician said. "He believes the Americans have given aid to the rebels."

Others who have seen President Doe in recent days say he has become more elusive and enigmatic than ever. He is rarely seen in public, and for security reasons, is said to sleep in a different house every night. He is reported to have sent his wife, Nancy, and six children to Britain to stay until the crisis is resolved. "He's determined to stick this out, and he thinks he can win," a Liberian said. "Hardly anyone else here is that confident."

Source: New York Times

War of Quick but Brutal Clashes Unfolds in Liberia

A week later, the evidence is still here. Lying in two shallow ditches behind the village are 15 bodies, swollen and decaying in the sweltering heat of the West African sun. People who are fleeing from this small village and surrounding hamlets say they saw Government troops round up people in six villages and shoot many here before the soldiers ran away on May 9. But the villagers said the gruesome outburst here was hardly unusual. The fighting began last December, when guerrillas opposed to Liberia's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, invaded the lushly forested hills here in the north. The Liberian Government then sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. Since then, a war of small, quick and often brutal engagements has unfolded, attracting little international attention.

The rebels assertion that they control 75 percent of rural Liberia is clearly excessive. But they appear to be able to move freely in more than a third of the country, making what they call liberated zones a practical reality. No definitive accounting of civilian casualties has been compiled. But Western diplomats and missionaries and other travelers through the northeastern corner of Liberia, where the fighting has centered, as well as Liberians with friends and relatives in the area, put the figure of those killed at 700 civilians or more. The Government in Liberia has not sought to deny or play down such reports.

A three-day visit through northeastern Liberia, in the company of rebel guides, showed that the guerrilla force of at least a thousand people has turned hundreds of square miles of the country into a war zone of charred huts and crumbled and blocked bridges that give them control of key roads. The guerrillas seem well equipped and appear to be at least as disciplined as the Government forces. Although the rebels also assert that they have a clandestine presence in Monrovia and the port of Buchanan, Charles Taylor, the former minister who is leading the revolt, said the rebel strategy is to gain control of rural Liberia before trying to invade urban areas. He made his comments during an interview at his base, a former Baptist mission in Tapeta, about 130 miles east of Monrovia. In this area where the rebel forces are in control, the signs of warfare are everywhere - at roadblocks guarded by heavily armed men wearing tattered rags, in the machine-gun nests on hilltops, in the trucks loaded with rebels hurtling through the countryside.

Production in the country's vital mining and logging industries has virtually halted, and the sudden flight of tens of thousands of farmers from the agriculturally rich Nimba region has clouded the prospect for this year's vital rice harvest. Nearly 200,000 of the 270,000 people estimated to reside in Nimba County have fled their homes because of the fighting and have sought sanctuary in neighboring Guinea, the Ivory Coast or in and around the Liberian capital, Monrovia. Government administration in Nimba County has ceased to function and the turmoil here, many Liberians fear, will soon threaten the rest of the nation unless a settlement is reached soon. Nonetheless, ever since the rebellion began and as recently as last week, General Doe has repeatedly asserted in Monrovia that his troops are maintaining complete control of the country. The rebels, General Doe has said, are only an annoyance, a small band of lightly armed and poorly trained dissidents fighting in isolated mountainous areas.

Mr. Taylor asserted that the insurgency was gainining momentum as it headed toward the capital. "I can assure you that we are in striking distance of Monrovia," Mr. Taylor said in the interview. Mr. Taylor, 42 years old, a stocky man of medium height with a trim beard, is a former Cabinet minister who is remembered by many Liberians for fleeing the country in 1986 after being accused of embezzlement. The rebel leader told reporters today that the charges were false and that he had been framed by General Doe.

On Saturday, the rebels captured Yekepa, site of Liberia's biggest industrial complex, an iron-ore mine. Today, heavy fighting took place around Buchanan, which the rebels say they have surrounded. Residents near the airport at Robertsfield, about 25 miles east of Monrovia, reportedly have begun to flee as fighting draws near. As Western reporters were escorted by rebel troups through Nimba and Grand Bassa counties, villagers waved, chanted and danced to show their support. "Our leader Mr. Taylor! Our leader Mr. Taylor!" they shouted. 'Doe Has Been Bad' But when asked what they thought about the rebel leader, many of the villagers confessed that they knew virtually nothing about him. Indeed, what appears to have driven many to the rebel cause was not Mr. Taylor, but rather their hatred for General Doe.

In addition to the villagers, human-rights monitors, among them members of Amnesty International and Africa Watch, based in London and Washington respectively, said they had received reports that soldiers engaged in vicious and mostly arbitrary reprisals against people they believed were sympathetic to the rebel cause. Asked about reports that Liberian soldiers were abusing unarmed civilians, General Doe offered no apologies and insisted that Government troops only pursued rebels.

Last week, Monrovia was awash in rumors that the Government was seeking a negotiated settlement with the rebels. "Doe has begun to realize that things are not going his way, and if he doesn't act soon, the rebels are going to be camped on the lawn of the executive mansion," said an African diplomat from a neighboring country.

Mr. Taylor told reporters that he wanted to get rid of General Doe and install democracy. And while he has not ruled out negotiations, he said there would be no bargaining as long as General Doe is in office. "We want Doe gone," Mr. Taylor said. "Dead or alive."

Source: New York Times

Liberian President Leads the Good Life While His Country Grows Poorer

The delivery of a new luxury plane for the personal use of the Liberian President made front-page headlines in January in this impoverished West African country. The 60-seater Boeing 707, which diplomats here say was purchased for nearly $20 million, is "yet another cost-saving measure adopted by the Government," the state-owned newspaper said, because "it will minimize the high cost of chartering private planes." What news reports did not mention, however, is that only two runways in this small country are long enough to accommodate the new aircraft, and both are near Monrovia, the capital. As for foreign travel, the President, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, has not flown overseas since he visited Romania nearly three years ago. "It's an immense waste of money," a Liberian businessman said, "especially in a country that is nearly bankrupt."

In its way, the new plane may be an apt metaphor for Liberia, which often gives the impression of forward motion, while it is rolling steadily toward financial and political collapse. Liberia is rich in minerals and has one of West Africa's most skilled and educated work forces. It also has a reputation as one of the African continent's most egregious examples of economic mismanagement. The timing of the plane's arrival was especially striking, Western and Liberian analysts said, because it came during the visit of a delegation from the International Monetary Fund. "To acquire that plane right now, with everyone watching so closely, is either an act of incredible arrogance or incredible incompetence," a longtime Western resident said.

Three years ago Liberia, which was founded in the mid-19th century as a republic for freed American slaves, became the only country in Africa ever suspended from I.M.F. and World Bank borrowing. The lenders and the Government are in the midst of negotiations over the next disciplinary step - whether Liberia should be formally declared in default and unlikely to repay $1.2 billion in debt owed to them and other foreign creditors. Later this year, in the third and final step of the sanctions process, Liberia could become the first country ever expelled from the international lending agency.

At the same time the United States, Liberia's largest trading partner and foreign investor, is also cutting back. From 1980 to 1985, the United States gave this country of 2.3 million people nearly $500 million in aid and loans, making Liberia the largest per-capita recipient of American aid in sub-Saharan Africa. But charging mismanagement and misappropriation, the United States Congress has steadily slashed aid levels, to $19.5 million last year and about $10 million in 1990.

The sense of economic disarray is compounded, Western donors and bankers say, by President Doe's growing appetite for government-subsidized extravagance. He owns a small fleet of luxury automobiles and is said to spend lavishly on clothes and jewelry. And while no reliable estimate has ever been made, rumors run through the capital that General Doe and his wife, Nancy, and other family members have accumulated extensive real-estate holdings.

One telling detail about Mr. Doe's changing values, Liberian political analysts say, is his insistence on being called "Dr. Doe," the consequence of a visit to South Korea several years ago in which he received an honorary doctorate. By law, the President's image appears ubiquitiously in public places and many people hang his picture in private offices as a display of fealty. "He is definitely encouraging a cult of personality," a Liberian businessman said, "and you don't dare suggest that there's anything wrong with it."

Well-connnected senior Government workers have also grown wealthy through lucrative business opportunities obtained through the executive mansion. And despite the Government's deteriorating fiscal condition, in recent months at least a dozen West German limousines were purchased for the small group of political cronies who surround the President. Nonetheless, when confronted with accusations of corruption, the 39-year old General Doe has said he is a victim of disinformation and has blamed his political opponents for such reports. The President's aides said he was too busy to be interviewed.

Of late, however, the most immediate threat to the Doe leadership is an armed one. Since late December, Government forces have been trying to crush an invasion by guerrillas opposed to the President's rule. The rebels, led by Charles Taylor, a former Doe Cabinet minister who is remembered here mostly for fleeing the country in 1986 after being accused of embezzlement, invaded Nimba County, about 300 miles northeast of Monrovia. The Liberian Government sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. In interviews on the Ivory Coast side of the border, refugees reported that the soldiers indiscriminately engaged in vicious and mostly arbitary reprisals, killing hundreds of unarmed civilians - people they apparently believed were sympathetic to the rebel cause.

Amnesty International and Africa Watch, human rights groups, as well as the United States Embassy in Monrovia, have also said that soldiers attacked unarmed civilians. So far, at least 140,000 Liberians are believed to have fled across the eastern frontiers to escape the bloodshed, most of them settling in the heavily forested hills of the Ivory Coast and Guinea.

Diplomats say that about half of Nimba County - its northern and eastern portions - is still contested. Guerrilla activity in these areas remains strong, and the army has been unable, despite a variety of tactics, to bring them under control. The Nimba invasion also has potentially far-reaching implications for Liberia's economy because about 30 percent of agricultural production comes from the region. By the accounting of Western economists, the sudden flight of tens of thousands of farmers has already clouded the prospects for this year's rice harvest, and there is talk of potential food shortages and other hardships. "If there is anything people react to here, it is food shortages and price increases; that combination could be explosive," said a Western relief worker who recalled that it was nearly a decade ago that proposals to increase the price of rice set off a wave of protest that eventually led to the overthrow of President William R. Tolbert.

In 1980, General Doe, an 11th-grade dropout and a 28-year-old master sergeant, came to power after he and other army noncommissioned officers shot and bayoneted President Tolbert and took over the Government. Ten days later, the foreign press was invited to record the sight of 13 senior Government officials, including most of the former Cabinet, marched nearly naked through the streets of Monrovia, tied to seaside posts and then executed at point-blank range. President Doe's international reputation has never fully recovered from that moment. Leaders of neighboring West African countries, particularly the President of the Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet Boigny, have maintained diplomatically correct but nonetheless strained relations with the Liberian leader.

General Doe's image here and abroad has also suffered from persistent accusations of human rights abuses. The State Department's 1989 human rights report said, "Brutality by police and other security officials during the arrest and questioning of individuals is fairly common, and there has been no evident government effort to halt this practice."

Liberia's tightly controlled press rarely touches on such subjects and those who do can be expected to be dealt with ruthlessly. Dozens of journalists have been detained in recent years, often without charges, and several newspapers have been closed. The Daily Observer, Monrovia's leading independent paper, has been ordered shut five times since 1982, once for almost 20 months. Perhaps the greatest source of internal tension in recent years is the widespread impression here that a Krahn tribal elite has begun to replace the American-Liberian elite that virtually ran the country until the 1980 coup.

Unlike most countries in West Africa, until recently Liberia has been relatively free of ethnic strife. This began to change with the ascendancy of President Doe, a Krahn. Since then, the Krahn, though they make up only about 4 percent of the population, are disproportionately represented in the executive mansion, senior government positions, and the leadership of the armed forces. Most significant, senior military soldiers directing government forces in Nimba County reportedly engaged in bullying tactics and even murder. Most of the officers were Krahn, and the civilians attacked, members of the Gio and Mandingo tribes.

Source: New York Times

GORBACHEV CALLS LITHUANIA'S MOVE AN 'ALARMING' STEP

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev today described Lithuania's declaration of independence as ''alarming,'' but he gave no indication of what the Kremlin's next move would be. He said the decision on Sunday by the Lithuanian parliament should be examined by the Soviet national legislature, which convened today in a special session. But neither Mr. Gorbachev nor other other Soviet officials said whether Moscow would recognize the independence of Lithuania, which was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 after 22 years as a sovereign nation. ''The information coming from there is alarming,'' Mr. Gorbachev said. ''The decisions that are being taken affect the fundamental interests and destiny of the republic itself, of the people and of our entire state.''

Mr. Gorbachev has struggled over the last few months to persuade Lithuanian leaders to abandon their campaign for independence. The Soviet President's remarks, at the opening of the special session of the Congress of the People's Deputies, offered no indication of whether he would negotiate with Lithuanian leaders. Lithuania's resolution was the first issue raised by Mr. Gorbachev before the congress, which was hastily convened so that it could adopt a new law expanding the executive powers of the presidency. He said the congress should begin analyzing the implications of Lithuania's proclamation, which was approved by the Baltic republic's parliament in a 124-to-0 vote.

Source: New York Times

President of the Ivory Coast Rejects Democracy Demands

President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, breaking a five-year public silence in the face of fierce opposition to his 30-year rule, today rejected demands for multiparty democracy and said he would use force to keep order.

Mr. Houphouet-Boigny, who is at least 84 years old, said at his first news conference in five years, ''Faced with injustice and disorder, I shall not hesitate to choose injustice.''

He blamed Western companies for the unrest and said they were trying to destabilize the country by driving down prices of cocoa and coffee, the Ivory Coast's main exports.

Source: New York Times

For Liberia's Army, the Spoils Include the People's Hatred

Sakou Saysay has had enough and wants to leave. The only obstacle now is finding a wagon big enough to take his 3 wives and 18 children. "I'm sick of living like this," said Mr. Saysay, a farmer who has lived in this remote village in northeastern Liberia for nearly 20 years. "A man can't sleep in peace here anymore."

Most of his goats, chickens and sheep have been stolen by marauding gangs of Liberian soldiers, he said. Some of his neighbors have also been held at gunpoint and forced to give money. A few have been killed. "I'm going to Guinea while I still have time, before they get me too," Mr. Saysay said. He will be joining a growing exodus of Liberians who are fleeing the worst outbreak of violence in this West African country in recent years. Diplomats and journalists say that as many as 70,000 people - about a third of Nimba County - have fled Liberia, mostly crossing into Guinea or the Ivory Coast.

The violence erupted in late December, when guerrillas opposed to Liberia's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, invaded this lushly forested area nestled in the Nimba Mountains. The Liberian Government then sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. After a bloody campaign, the Liberian Army is generally believed to have succeeded in securing the eastern half of Nimba County. But scattered fighting is reported to continue between the Liberian forces and the insurgents led by Charles Taylor, a former Cabinet minister who fell into disfavor and fled the country after being charged with corruption. Though the rebels are said to attack civilian as well as military targets, the stories told in towns and villages in this area are almost uniformly ones of bitterness toward the Liberian Army. "The situation is not about the rebels," Mr. Saysay said. "It's about the soldiers."

A Western diplomat said: "Soldiers were supposed to be up there to rid the area of rebels. But ironically, because they were such brutes, they have created a lot of sympathy for the rebels." Most residents of Nimba County are members of the Gio and Mano tribes, which are also the tribes of many of Mr. Taylor's followers. By contrast, most of the senior military officers directing Government forces here are said to be members of the Krahn tribe, as is President Doe. The Krahns, who are about five percent of the population, now dominate much of Liberia's political life.

At the once-bustling trading town of Sanoquelli, dozens of abandoned storefronts and the mostly deserted streets testify to the bloody events of January. Diplomats and international relief workers estimate that at least 500 civilians have been killed. Residents here say the dawn-to-dusk curfew imposed by the military has introduced a new element of fear. "If soldiers arrest you for curfew, they ask you for money, and if you don't give it to them, they kill you," said Mamade Kende, a farmer in Gbapa. He said he had to pay a soldier $15 not to rape his daughter. The starting monthly salary for a Liberian soldier is about $50.

Liberian forces have allowed journalists to tour secure areas of Nimba County but have blocked access to an area between Zulowi and Kahnple. Refugees who have fled across the border into the Ivory Coast and Guinea said that it was mostly in that region that soldiers went on a rampage. Asked about reports that Liberian soldiers were abusing unarmed civilians, military officials here insisted that their operations had been confined to pursuing the rebels and that any attacks on civilians were committed by the rebels. Brig. Gen. Moses K. Draig, the commander of Government forces here, said: "Harassment on the part of our troops is out of the question. They've got too much to do."

Source: New York Times

SOUTH AFRICA'S NEW ERA; MANDELA, FREED, URGES STEP-UP IN PRESSURE TO END WHITE RULE

After 27 and a half years in prison, Nelson Mandela finally won his freedom today and promptly urged his supporters at home and abroad to increase their pressure against the white minority Goverment that had just released him. ''We have waited too long for our freedom,'' Mr. Mandela told a cheering crowd from a balcony of Cape Town's old City Hall. ''We can wait no longer.'' ''Now is the time to intensify the struggle on all fronts,'' he said. ''To relax our efforts now would be a mistake which generations to come will not able to forgive.''

Mr. Mandela's 20-minute speech, which he prepared before leaving prison today, constituted his first remarks in public since before he was sentenced in June 1964 to life imprisonment for conspiracy to overthrow the Government and engage in sabotage. He asked the international community not to lift its sanctions against South Africa, despite the recent changes introduced by President F. W. de Klerk, which culminated in Mr. Mandela's release. ''To lift sanctions now would be to run the risk of aborting the process toward ending apartheid,'' he said.

Mr. Mandela's voice sounded firm and his words as eloquently militant as when he defended violence as the ultimate recourse at his political trial in 1964. Though he looked all of his 71 years and was grayer than artists' renditions over the years had depicted, he walked out of Victor Verster prison erect and vigorous. In Washington, President Bush rejoiced over the release of Mr. Mandela, spoke to him by telephone and invited the anti-apartheid leader to visit the White House. Mr. Mandela gave no evidence that his militant opposition to apartheid had been tempered by the more than 10,000 days he spent in confinement. But he also said nothing that would have surprised the Government had he said it during his years of incarceration. Indeed, there appeared to be nothing in Mr. Mandela's initial remarks after his release to give the Government much consolation or encouragement. Although he has been viewed as a potential leader for all South Africans, he stressed time and again that his loyalty lay with the African National Congress, for which he was working underground when he was jailed in August 1962 on charges of incitement and leaving the country illegally. He was serving time on that conviction when he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.

Mr. Mandela told a crowd that he remained a ''loyal and disciplined member'' of the African National Congress and still endorsed its policies, including its use of armed struggle against the white minority Government. He said he saluted the congress's military wing, Spear of the Nation, and its ally, the South African Communist Party, ''for its steady contribution to the struggle for democracy.'' But he also thanked the Black Sash, an organization of white women working to end apartheid, and the predominantly white National Union of South African Students for being ''the conscience of white South Africans.'' And he held out an olive branch to all whites, asking them to join in shaping a new South Africa. ''The freedom movement is a political home for you, too,'' he said.

In his first speech after his release, Mr. Mandela may have taken an orthodox line with a mass audience sympathetic to the African National Congress and might in private discussions eshow greater flexibility on the question of discussions that the Government wants to have with blacks, who are 28 million of the population, compared with the 5 million whites of the ruling minority. He said he was only making some preliminary comments following his release, and would have more to say ''after I have had the opportunity to consult with my comrades.'' By this he meant the leaders of the African National Congress now in exile in Zambia as well as colleagues still based in South Africa. But he appeared to discourage any leading role for himself, such as the Government has in mind, saying, ''A leader of the movement is a person who has been democratically elected at a national conference.''

President de Klerk has invited black leaders to join talks leading to the formulation of a new constitution that would let black South Africans take part at last in their nation's politics.Mr. Mandela acknowledged to the crowd that he had conducted a dialogue with the Government during his last years in prison. But he added: ''My talks with the Government have been aimed at normalizing the political situation in the country. We have not yet begun discussing the basic demands of our struggle. I wish to stress that I myself have at no time entered into negotiations about the future of our country, except to insist on a meeting between the A.N.C. and the Government,'' he said. He described Mr. de Klerk, whom he has met twice since December, as ''a man of integrity. Mr. de Klerk has gone further than any other Nationalist President in taking real steps to normalize the situation,'' Mr. Mandela said. ''But as an organization we base our policy and strategy and tactics on the harsh reality we are faced with,'' he said. ''And this reality is that we are still suffering under the policies of the Nationalist Government.''

The National Party, which Mr. de Klerk now leads, instituted apartheid after taking power in 1948. Mr. Mandela said the Government had to take further steps before negotiations could begin. As a prerequisite for negotiations, he reiterated two demands that he had conveyed from prison through recent visitors. These are are the lifting of the state of emergency, which was imposed in June 1986, and the release of all political prisoners, including those accused of crimes committed in the struggle against apartheid. ''Only such a normalized situation which allows for free political activity can allow us to consult our people in order to obtain a mandate,'' Mr. Mandela said. He said the people had to be consulted about who would represent them in talks with the Government. ''Negotiations cannot take place above the heads or behind the backs of our people,'' he said. ''It is our belief that the future of our country can only be determined by a body which is democratically elected on a nonracial basis.''

Mr. Mandela appeared to allude to a formula under which a constituent assembly, in effect supplanting the existing Parliament, would draft a new constitution. Such a plan would mean the creation of an interim government in South Africa and has previously been rejected by Mr. de Klerk for the foreseeable future. Mr. Mandela walked out of Victor Verster Prison near Paarl at 4:15 P.M., 75 minutes later than the release time announced Saturday afternoon by Mr. de Klerk. Acquaintances of the Mandela family said his departure from the prison was delayed by family discussions. He was greeted by about 5,000 supporters lining the asphalt road outside the prison farm where he has been held since December 1988. Some waved the black, green and yellow flags of the African National Congress, from which Mr. de Klerk removed a ban on Feb. 2. Mr. Mandela was then driven 40 miles from Paarl to Cape Town, passing several hundred people who had parked by the roadside or waited on overpasses in hope of seeing him. They held homemade signs, some of which read simply, ''Welcome home.'' A huge crowd, which organizers said reached 250,000 people, assembled in the square in front of the old City Hall in Cape Town to greet Mr. Mandela. Reporters covering the rally put the crowd's size at only 50,000 people at its peak. They became impatient and sometimes unruly, waiting up to six hours in the hot sun and had dwindled to about 20,000 by sunset, when Mr. Mandela finally appeared.

In the 1950's it was Government policy to prevent blacks from settling in the Western Cape, so they are not in the clear majority in Cape Town, where Mr. Mandela was released. People of mixed race, known as ''coloreds,'' are the largest population group in Cape Town, where whites also outnumber blacks. Blacks, who account for nearly 75 percent of the population in the country as a whole, are in the overwhelming majority in the Johannesburg region, where Mr. Mandela can expect his most tumultuous welcome.

The festive occasion was marred by violence after some youths who had been drinking on the fringes of the rally started breaking windows and looting shops in downtown Cape Town. The police tried to disperse them by firing shotguns and tear gas, and some of the youths retaliated by throwing bottles and stones. At one point, drunken protesters invaded a Chinese restaurant, snatched up the liquor and wine and threw bottles at the police from the rooftop. One man in the crowd was also injured in a knife fight.

The South African Press Association reported tonight that 2 people had been killed and 13 wounded in the confrontations. A physician treating casualties on the scene estimated that 100 people had been wounded, mostly by buckshot. Most suffered only light injuries, including three journalists covering the rally. Cheryl Carolus, a spokeswoman for the United Democratic Front, which helped organize the rally, attributed the violence to outsiders who, she said, were ''beyond our usual crowds, or who supported the rival Pan-Africanist Movement.''' At times, some supporters at the rally had to scramble for cover as the police chased or fired at looters and stone-throwers. The Rev. Allan Boesak, a prominent figure in the anti-apartheid movement, pleaded for more than 45 minutes with the crowd to maintain discipline and move back.

Dullah Omar, a lawyer representing the Mandela family, said Mr. Mandela had been unaware of the violence. This evening, Mr. Mandela failed to appear at a news conference arranged by the reception committee that is handling his schedule. A representative said Mr. Mandela would meet the press later this week in Johannesburg. Mr. Mandela and his wife, Winnie, are expected to fly to Johannesburg on Monday and proceed to their home in the black township of Soweto. One of the organizers, Saki Mocozoma, said security considerations precluded him from revealing where the Mandelas were spending their first night.

Mr. Mandela also paid tribute to his wife, who has lived apart from him for more than 27 years, and their children. ''I am convinced that your pain and suffering was far greater than my own,'' he told them.

Source: New York Times

SOUTH AFRICA'S NEW ERA; SOUTH AFRICA'S PRESIDENT ENDS 30-YEAR BAN ON MANDELA GROUP; SAYS IT IS TIME FOR NEGOTIATION

President F. W. de Klerk today lifted a 30-year ban on the African National Congress, the movement that has been fighting to bring down white minority rule in South Africa, and promised that Nelson Mandela, who has been imprisoned for nearly 28 years, would be freed soon. The moves were disclosed in a package of sweeping changes that Mr. de Klerk announced in a speech at the opening of Parliament today. Mr. de Klerk's program, which went beyond what virtually all his critics expected, appeared intended to clear the way for negotiating the country's future with his strongest black opponents, and also to put the onus for the next move on the opposition.

The African National Congress followed a policy of nonviolent resistance to white rule for decades before it was declared illegal in 1960. Thereafter, it organized a military force in exile and waged a campaign of bombings with underground operatives inside South Africa. Although the group was banned, its influence continued to grow in recent years, to the point that not only black leaders from inside South Africa but white business executives and politicians began flying regularly to Lusaka, Zambia, to meet with its exiled leaders. By legitimizing the movement's role in South African political life, President de Klerk appeared to be seeking an end to the era of violent confrontation. But he left uncertain the distance he was prepared to travel toward the movement's goals of ending white dominance and dismantling the legal structure of apartheid.''Hostile postures have to be replaced by cooperative ones, confrontation by contact, disengagement by engagement, slogans by deliberate debate,'' Mr. de Klerk told Parliament in calling for the Government's opponents to join the negotiations he has proposed. ''The season of violence is over,'' the President said. ''The time for reconstruction and reconciliation has arrived.''

Thousands of people took to the streets of major cities to cheer the announcement and call for more change. The demonstration here concluded peacefully, but in Johannesburg, police officers acting under regulations that remain in force broke up a march into the city center with tear gas and night sticks. Prominent critics of apartheid praised Mr. de Klerk's move, although they stressed the need for more concessions by the Government. But Mr. de Klerk's announcement was criticized by the country's most prominent right-wing white leader, who called for new elections.

Mr. de Klerk promised that Mr. Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress who is a hero to much of the country's black majority, would be freed soon but declined to say when. His release has been seen by Pretoria's opponents at home and abroad as a major test of Mr. de Klerk's intentions to move away from apartheid, the system of racial segregation and white domination. ''I wish to put it plainly that the Government has taken a firm decision to release Mr. Mandela unconditionally,'' Mr. de Klerk said. ''I am serious about bringing this matter to finality without delay. The Government will take a decision soon on the date of his release. Unfortunately, a further short passage of time is unavoidable.'' Mr. de Klerk attributed the postponement of Mr. Mandela's freedom to ''factors in the way of his immediate release, of which his personal circumstances and safety are not the least.'' The President, as well as other Government ministers, refused to explain further. But Stoffel van der Merwe, Minister of Development Aid and Education, which encompasses the education of blacks, briefed reporters on Mr. de Klerk's speech today and told them that ''I don't think we will see Christmas with Mr. Mandela in jail.'' Others informed about the Government's thinking expect Mr. Mandela's release to come within weeks, if not days.

The 71-year-old anti-apartheid leader, who is living on a prison farm outside Cape Town, has been quoted by recent visitors as demanding that the Government improve the political climate before he leaves prison. The conditions mentioned included the legalization of the African National Congress, the release of political detainees, the lifting of the national state of emergency decree and an end to political trials and executions.

Mr. de Klerk appeared to cover most of those demands as he repeated his willingness to discuss a new constitution that would give political rights to the black majority without forcing the white minority to relinquish power. ''With the steps the Government has taken, it has proven its good faith and the table is laid for sensible leaders to begin talking about a new dispensation, to reach an understanding by way of dialogue and discussion,'' Mr. de Klerk said. The other changes announced by Mr. de Klerk included these:

* Emergency regulations curtailing the freedom of press will be repealed, except for unspecified conditions limiting photographic and television coverage of racial unrest.

* Restrictions on 33 organizations whose activities were curtailed under the national state of emergency decree will be lifted.

* Restrictions on the movements and contacts of 374 people released from detention are to be lifted and the regulations hampering their freedom are to be abolished.

* Political detentions will be limited to six months, and detainees will have the right to legal representation and a doctor of their choice.

Opponents of apartheid have estimated that 30,000 people have been detained since the national state of emergency decree was imposed in June 1986, and many of those were held indefinitely without access to a lawyer or doctor. In addition to the African National Congress, the most prominent groups whose activities will no longer be restricted are the South African Communist Party, a longtime ally of Mr. Mandela's group, and a rival, the Pan-Africanist Congress, which places greater stress on the role of black leadership in the anti-apartheid struggle.

The list also includes the United Democratic Front, a coalition of anti-apartheid parties, the South African National Students Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, a labor federation active in the struggle against apartheid, the National Education Crisis Committee, and the White Freedom Movement, a right-wing paramilitary group promoting white racial supremacy, which was banned in December 1989.

Mr. de Klerk acknowledged that the national state of emergency regulations remained in force, but said they would now inhibit only those who used chaos and disorder as political weapons. ''It is my intention to terminate the state of emergency as soon as circumstances justify it and I request the cooperation of everybody toward this end,'' the President said. The changes announced today, while probably the most dramatic announced by any South African President in a single speech, leave in place the basic structures of apartheid, including the Population Registration Act, which classifies every South African by race, and the Group Areas Act, which enforces the segregation of neighborhoods. Blacks also remain largely excluded from the political process.

The country is governed by a three-chamber Parliament, representing whites, Asians and people of mixed race, and a President elected by the legislators. Blacks, who represent about 75 percent of the total population of 38.5 million, have no representation. But Mr. de Klerk said the Separate Amenities Act, which has allowed municipal officials to bar blacks from publicly owned centers, installations and facilities, would be repealed by Parliament in its current session, as he had promised late last year. Mr. de Klerk further announced that the Government would confine the use of the death penalty to what he called ''extreme cases,'' in part by allowing judges greater discretion in imposing it. ''The net of extenuating circumstances will be substantally increased,'' Foreign Minister Roelof F. Botha, a confidant of Mr. de Klerk, told reporters. Under current South African law, a judge is required to sentence a defendent to hang if the defendant is convicted of a capital crime.

Critics of apartheid have viewed the death penalty as an instrument of repression, because blacks account for most condemned prisoners and because capital punishment has been applied in politically motivated crimes. Mr. de Klerk said those sentenced to death would automatically be granted the right to appeal their sentences, which is now at the judge's discretion. Those changes, he said, would be extended to those currently on death row. ''Therefore, all executions have been suspended and no executions will take place until Parliament has taken a final decision on the new proposals.'' he said. ''In the event of the proposals being adopted, the case of every person involved will be dealt with in accordance with the new guidelines.''

Taken altogether, the changes announced by Mr. de Klerk amount to a significant reconsideration of the Government's policy toward dissent, because they appear to address most of the complaints by the anti-apartheid movement about Government repression. Prominent members of the anti-apartheid movement reacted with optimism tempered by caution. They attributed the changes to the domestic and international pressure applied against Pretoria, not to Mr. de Klerk's boldness.

At a news conference called here by the United Democratic Front, its publicity secretary, Patrick Lekota, said Mr. de Klerk's speech showed that international sanctions against South Africa worked and that the measures should be maintained and intensified. ''To lift sanctions now will be to run the risk of aborting the process toward democracy,'' Mr. Lekota said. But Dr. Andries P. Treurnicht, leader of the right-wing Conservative Party in Parliament, called Mr. de Klerk's speech shocking. He demanded that Mr. de Klerk, whose National Party was returned to power last September, hold a new election to see how much support whites would give him now.

The regulations enacting most of the changes, which take effect immediately, are to be published in the Government Gazette beginning tomorrow. Mr. van der Merwe said the Government had not set any conditions on the legalization of the African National Congress, which has been outlawed since 1960, or on its resumption of political activity. He also said members of the organization living in exile could return home without fear of punishment, as long as they had not been charged with criminal offenses. And he said members held in South African jails for illegal political activity, though not crimes, would be released.

Source: New York Times

Death in Detention

According to the South African Police, Clayton Sizwe Sithole was found hanging by a belt and shoelaces from a water pipe in the shower soon after he had been heard joking with a policeman who had locked him in his cell. It remains unexplained where he got the shoelaces.

Source: Sunday Times Heritage Project

Masses of Liberian Refugees Flee Rebellion and Reprisal Killings

In hospital wards here, a bedraggled and stunned group of refugees from Liberia are struggling to sort out the reasons behind the outburst of violence that has led to hundreds of deaths there. "I heard gunshots, and I thought they were still celebrating Christmas," recalled Peter L. Zayzay, a 36-year old shop owner from Butuo, Liberia. "Then the next thing I knew, several men were running after me, trying to cut off my head." The men, wielding machetes, struck him repeatedly on the head and neck. Trying to fend off their blows, Mr. Zayzay lost three fingers on his right hand. "I don't know why this happened," he said. "They didn't even know me."

The killings began late in December when guerrillas opposed to Liberia's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, entered the Liberian border town of Butuo in Nimba County. The Liberian Government then sent troops and provincial policemen to oust them. "The army started shooting and hacking at anyone they thought was a rebel," a Western diplomat said. "They didn't care if they were civilians or not. From all accounts, they were committing real atrocities." Two American military officers were sent to the Nimba region as observers this week after reports of the attacks on civilians. It was not clear whether they were there at the request of the Liberian Government.

A few miles from here, in Selleu, anguished and grisly reports were given by families huddled in a cluster in the cluttered courtyard of a village near the Liberian frontier. Some had been beaten and allowed to escape with only the clothes on their backs. They talked in frightened whispers of seeing friends and relatives clubbed or hacked to death by mobs. Mindo Paye said she, her husband and four children were asleep last Monday when the shooting began. Her oldest son ran to the door and was shot to death, as was her husband. Her 11-year-old daughter was badly wounded in the leg. "They just shot us like animals," she kept saying, hugging herself and shaking from side to side.

Another Liberian refugee, Samuel Paye, 22 years old, was hit with a hand grenade, which tore a wound in his thigh. He said his father, mother and grandfather were among at least 40 people killed during an attack in the border town of Loguato. In interviews on the Ivory Coast side of the border, many refugees reported that the border villages from which they fled - notably Kahnplay, Butuo and Lepulah - had been destroyed in the fighting. Soldiers were said to have burned and looted the dwellings.

The refugees said the shooting had been carried out by men dressed in Liberian Army uniforms. None of the victims was able to explain why he was being targeted for persecution. But human rights observers, among them people from Amnesty International and Africa Watch, based in London and Washington respectively, said they had received reports of an indiscrimate shoot-to-kill policy ordered by General Doe against anyone "engaged in suspicious activities."

The rebels, according to some reports, then went on an avenging rampage south into Krahn territory, General Doe's tribal and political base, attacking soldiers and slaughtering unarmed civilians there. The guerrillas, mostly members of the Gio tribe, were said to be led by Charles Taylor, a former Doe Cabinet minister who fell into disfavor and fled the country after being charged with corruption.

The dimensions of the violence by both sides may never be known, in part because Liberia has sought to sever contacts with reporters and with outside groups that are not likely to favor the Government. Diplomats and international relief workers, however, estimate that at least 500 civilians have been killed. More ominously, African and Western diplomats say, the Liberian Government has yet to clamp down hard on soldiers involved in the campaign of killing and terror. Reports of continued fighting along the border have touched off fears that the region is on the brink of prolonged civil strife.

So far, at least 70,000 Liberians have fled across the eastern frontier to escape the bloodshed and most of them have settled in the heavily forested hills of this remote corner of the Ivory Coast. The thinly populated ridges of green bush are lush with coconut palms, bamboo and wild banana trees, and the mist that settles in the valleys makes the mornings serene and idyllic. For now, however, the region's tranquillity has been vanquished by the grim influx of Liberian refugees, many of whom need food and immediate medical help. Relief workers say that some of the small villages near the border, like Binta and Selleu, have increased in population more than tenfold since the beginning of the year.

The Liberian nation is, in a sense, the result of an earlier attempt to accommodate ethnic rivalries. Modern Liberia was founded in 1822 by slaves freed in the United States with the aid of President James Monroe and money from Congress to buy land from local chiefs for the settlers. In 1847, the country became Africa's first independent republic. Soon afterward, a glaring gap opened between the former slaves and the original residents of the country they created. The black settlers evolved into colonists who classified the indigenous African majority as "aborigines" and disenfranchised them, making the right to vote contingent on property ownership. Resentment against the American-Liberian elite simmered for decades, and in 1980, it boiled over when Master Sargeant Doe, a member of the Krahn tribe, seized power. A few days later, 13 former Government officials were tied to telephone poles on a beach and executed by a firing squad.

In recent years, sporadic violence has erupted, particularly in the eastern region. In 1985, opposition leaders charged that Government troops, many of them from the Krahn tribe, killed more than 1,000 Liberians mostly from the Gio and Mano tribes, in reprisal for suspected involvement in a coup attempt or for sympathy with rebel forces. The Government denied that there had been any executions. Earlier this week, President Doe warned that soldiers who harmed unarmed civilians would face firing squads. He said, however, that it has been difficult for soldiers to identify rebels because they were dressed in civilian clothes.

For refugees like Mr. Zayzay, who fled with only the clothes on his back and little prospect that he can return soon, there is little consolation in such promises. "I lost everything," he said. "I don't even know where to begin to pick up my life."

Source: New York Times

Many Flee Liberia as Clash Destroys Towns, Envoys Say

Fighting between Liberian forces and rebels opposed to the West African country's leader, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, has devastated two towns in northeastern Liberia and sent thousands fleeing across the border, Western diplomats said today. The fighting began in the Nimba region, where according to General Doe, two groups of rebels entered Dec. 24 from the neighboring Ivory Coast.

One of the groups killed a police sergeant at the border town of Butuo before Government forces intervened, General Doe said on Tuesday. The other group reached Liberia's capital, Monrovia, but abandoned their weapons and surrendered, he said. One diplomat said the towns of Kahntle and Butuo were destroyed in the fighting. A Western diplomat in Monrovia, reached by telephone, said today that most of the rebels had reportedly fled or been killed or captured. But other diplomats said it could take time for the Government to dislodge all of the rebels from the sparsely populated region, which is about 100 miles northeast of Monrovia. Nimba was also the scene of abortive uprisings in 1985 and 1988.

Diplomats said it was difficult to determine how many Liberians were fleeing the fighting because the border area is heavily wooded and communications are poor. "People are trying to get out of the contested area," one diplomat said. "The number, however, is anyone's guess."

J. Emmanuel Bowier, Liberia's Information Minister, refused today to comment on the fighting. The official Liberian News Agency reported that General Doe would visit the region, which is under a dusk-to-dawn curfew. General Doe said on Thursday that the situation in the Nimba region was beginning to stabilize. He invited journalists to visit the area, but "at their own risk, as military operations were continuing."

Justice Minister Jenkins Scott said earlier this week that a total of 96 rebels had invaded Liberia from the Ivory Coast. He asserted that they had been trained in Burkina Faso and Libya. The Ivory Coast has repeatedly denied charges by Liberia that it provides a haven for General Doe's opponents. Burkina Faso also denied any role in the invasion.

The rebels, who are calling themselves the National Patriotic Front, are led by Charles Taylor, a former civil servant in General Doe's Government. A diplomat said that the group appeared to have no connection with Liberia's opposition parties. A man identifying himself as Charles Taylor called the British Broadcasting Corporation's African service on Monday to say that he was behind the invasion. Mr. Taylor reportedly lived as a fugitive in the United States in recent years as Liberian officials sought his extradition.

General Doe, formerly a master sergeant in Liberia's army, has withstood several coup attempts. He came to power himself in a 1980 coup in which President William R. Tolbert, a descendant of freed American slaves, and many of his political allies were put to death on a beach near the capital. General Doe has dismissed the Interior Minister, Col. Edward Sackor, for discounting a recent warning that opponents were preparing to attack.

Source: New York Times

Liberia's Leader Ousts Aide For Ignoring Hints of a Coup

The President of Liberia, Gen. Samuel K. Doe, dismissed his Interior Minister today for failing to heed a warning of an uprising by dissidents last week. General Doe also imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew on the Nimba region, where his opponents attacked a customs post in what the Government called an abortive invasion from the neighboring Ivory Coast. An official statement gave few details of the attack in an eastern town, Butuo, on Dec. 24, in which an army sergeant was killed and another soldier wounded.

The Interior Minister, Col. Edward Sackor, was dismissed along with the Nimba region's senior administrator. The two men had discounted a warning by a local chief that opponents were preparing an attack. The Government has sent troop reinforcements to Nimba, scene of abortive uprisings in 1985 and 1988 against General Doe, who took power in a 1980 coup of his own. It said some of the attackers were still at large.

A man who identified himself as Charles Taylor telephoned the British Broadcasting Corporation's African service on Monday to say that he was behind the invasion. He said that more than 100 armed men had mounted attacks in Nimba and that fighting was still going on. The Government has said the situation is under control.

Mr. Taylor, who has been living in the United States, said he had just left Liberia but he would not say from where he was calling. There were no other details of his identity or background. General Doe has survived several coup and assassination attempts, the last by his former right-hand man, Nicholas Podier, who was killed in July 1988 after leading a force of 12 men from the Ivory Coast. When he took power, he was an army master sergeant. Almost immediately after his successful coup, then-Sergeant Doe had a number of leaders of the deposed civilian regime, including two former Presidents, executed on a beach near the capital.

Source: New York Times

De Klerk and Mandela Discuss Future

President F. W. de Klerk discussed South Africa's future with Nelson R. Mandela today, raising the expectation that the imprisoned anti-apartheid leader may be released early next year. Mr. de Klerk received Mr. Mandela, South Africa's most prominent political prisoner, at Tuynhuys, the President's office in Cape Town. Mr. Mandela, who has been in jail since 1963, is being held at a prison farm near Paarl, outside Cape Town.

Justice Minister Hendrick J. Coetsee, who attended the meeting, said that it was requested by Mr. Mandela and welcomed by Mr. de Klerk, who says he wants to create a climate for negotiations that would give the country's disenfranchised black majority a limited degree of political power. Taking Measure of Each Other In a cautiously worded statement, Mr. Coetsee said the meeting with Mr. Mandela ''fitted in with Mr. de Klerk's program to consult with the full spectrum of political opinion concerning the mutual future of all South Africans.'' The discussions between Mr. de Klerk and Mr. Mandela, he said, included ''ways and means to address current obstacles in the way of meaningful dialogue.'' Mr. Coetsee declined to give more details, saying further statements ''would serve no positive purpose.'' But Mr. Mandela's release has been a consistent precondition of black leaders across the political spectrum for talks with the white minority Government.

The state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation, in reporting news of the meeting on the television evening news, showed an old photograph of Mr. Mandela, indicating a departure from the official position that his photograph not be shown or published because South African law treats him as a banned person. Today's meeting created the opportunity for the most prominent white and black South Africans to take personal measure of each other. Mr. Coetsee did not say how long the meeting lasted. The Justice Minister said follow-up talks between Mr. de Klerk and Mr. Mandela were envisioned in the new year, a statement that indicated Mr. Mandela would not be freed this month. Criticism From the Right

During a visit to the Ivory Coast on Dec. 2, President de Klerk told reporters that the question was not whether Mr. Mandela would be released but when and under what circumstances. Today's meeting was criticized by Andries Treurnicht, the leader of the right-wing Conservative Party, who said that it amounted to an unbanning of the outlawed African National Congress, to which Mr. Mandela has belonged for 45 years. But the liberal Democratic Party welcomed the meeting. In a statement, its co-leader, Denis Worrall, said Mr. Mandela's request to see President de Klerk ''suggests Mr. Mandela understands what an important role he has to play and how deeply his initial approach will influence in particular white South African attitudes.''

There have been reports that Mr. Mandela was remaining in prison by his own choice in order to get more jailed comrades released and to work out details for negotiations with the Government. But Dullah Omar, a Cape Town attorney, discounted such suggestions after lunching yesterday with Walter and Albertina Sisulu. Mr. Sisulu, a comrade of Mr. Mandela in both the outlawed African National Congress and in prison, visited Mr. Mandela for three hours yesterday.

Mr. de Klerk freed Mr. Sisulu and seven other long-term political prisoners, six of whom belonged to the Congress, on Oct. 15 in a gesture seen as a rehearsal for Mr. Mandela's release. Mr. Omar said Mr. Sisulu told him that of the issues he and Mr. Mandela discussed, ''the most relevant one was Mr. Mandela's continued imprisonment. Mr. Mandela emphatically denies that he has chosen not to be released now.'' ''He says he does not know why he has not been released with the others,'' Mr. Omar continued, according to a report by the South African Press Association. ''He has the right to be released but is not prepared to beg for his release.''

New York Times

A SOUTH AFRICAN TALKS OF HIT TEAM

A former South African security police captain says he commanded an assassination team created to track down and eliminate opponents of the Government. The former officer, Capt. Dirk Johannes Coetzee, who quit the police in 1986 and left South Africa last week, made the statement in an interview in Mauritius with a reporter for Vrye Weekblad, an Afrikaans-language weekly newspaper. The paper published the story in its current issue.

On Friday, Maj. Gen. Herman Stadler of the South African police said Mr. Coetzee's ''unfounded, untested and wild'' allegations would be investigated by T. P. McNally, the Attorney General of the Orange Free State, and Lieut. Gen. Alwyn Conradie, head of the police criminal investigation division.The police said Mr. Coetzee had made his accusations in a foreign country where they could not be verified. It also said he had been dishonorably discharged in 1986 for criminal misconduct. Vrye Weekblad said Mr. Coetzee, who is 44 years old, had left the force ''for health reasons after a departmental inquiry.'' Corroboration by Doomed Killer

A few weeks ago, Butana Nofomela, a convicted murderer awaiting hanging in Pretoria, asserted that he served as a member of the hit squad and named Captain Coetzee as his operational commander. His execution was stayed so his assertions could be investigated. Mr. Coetzee confirmed that Mr. Nofomela had served under him. ''I was the commander of the assassination squad of South African police,'' the newspaper quoted Mr. Coetzee as saying. ''My men and I killed and eliminated opponents of the Government.'' He said he was guilty of, or an accomplice to several murders.

Mr. Coetzee said the security police operation had five squads, including his, and had carried out attacks in Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Britain, as well as inside South Africa. ''We operated in civilian dress and were armed with the strangest weaponry and explosive devices,'' the newspaper quoted him as saying. ''We operated underground and were not recognizable as policemen.''

Some opponents of apartheid have insisted that the police were behind the killing of a number of Pretoria's adversaries, among them members of the outlawed African National Congress living in exile. The police have consistently denied the existence of any such ''hit squads,'' and General Stadler reiterated this denial on Friday.

Mr. Coetzee asserted that the operation was run from Vlakplaas, a restricted police training base near Pretoria, using former guerrillas from the African National Congress, nicknamed ''askaris,'' who had been recruited to fight their old comrades. Not for That Purpose The police confirmed on Friday that Mr. Coetzee had been stationed at Vlakplaas, but said that he had ''irresponsibly'' misidentified the base's purpose. ''The base was not open to the public because it houses former A.N.C. members, who are now proud South African policemen and citizens,'' the police statement said. ''They provide the force with valuable intelligence and also play a cardinal role in the identification of A.N.C. terrorists infiltrating South Africa,'' ''Their lives are constantly in jeopardy, and the base provided a safe haven for them,'' the statement said.

The former South African Police Commissioner, Gen. Johan Coetzee, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation today that the askaris were used to identify guerrillas trying to infiltrate through border posts with forged documents and were not involved in assassinations. General Coetzee, who is not related to Mr. Coetzee, said there were no ''hit squads.'' ''The police are there to maintain law and order,'' he added, ''and just the thought of such a squad would defeat all that the police stand for.''

The victims of his team, Mr. Coetzee said, included Griffiths Mxenge, a Durban lawyer stabbed to death in 1981. ''Yes, we killed Mxenge,'' the former officer was quoted as saying. He said the four killers each were paid 1,000 rand, now about $380. ''They assured me it looked like a robbery,'' he said. Guerrilla Targeted

On another assignment, Mr. Coetzee said, he was issued a Scorpion machine pistol concealed in a briefcase and ordered to kill Marius Schoon, an A.N.C. member living in Botswana. The mission was called off when other plans were made, he said. A letter bomb killed Mr. Schoon's wife, Jeanette, and young daughter in Angola in 1984.

Vrye Weekblad quoted Mr. Coetzee as relating other cases, in which he said captured guerrillas were drugged and shot with pistols fitted with silencers. Mr. Coetzee said his unit broke into the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Mbabane, Swaziland, and stole ''whatever we could find.'' One of the official envelopes they took, he said, was later used to mail the letter bomb that killed Ruth First in Maputo, Mozambique, in August 1982. She was the wife of Joe Slovo, who heads the South African Communist Party in exile.

Mr. Coetzee, who said he headed an assassination squad until 1982, told Vrye Weekblad: ''I decided to confess to cleanse my conscience. I think with contempt of the things that I did.''

Source: New York Times

Berliners celebrate the fall of the Wall

The Berlin Wall has been breached after nearly three decades keeping East and West Berliners apart.

At midnight East Germany's Communist rulers gave permission for gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points. They surged through cheering and shouting and were be met by jubilant West Berliners on the other side. Ecstatic crowds immediately began to clamber on top of the Wall and hack large chunks out of the 28-mile (45-kilometre) barrier.

It had been erected in 1961 on the orders of East Germany's former leader Walter Ulbricht to stop people leaving for West Germany.

Source: BBC

NAMIBIAN VOTERS DENY TOTAL POWER TO SWAPO

Along this city's well-traveled Talstrasse last week, almost every corner had a large red and blue billboard. `Vote Without Fear,' the signs instructed passing Namibians. Signs on neighborhing streets informed passersby, `Your Vote Is Your Secret.'

Erected by the South African administrator general, who with the United Nations is responsible for the maintenance of Namibia through independence, the signs were designed to calm the fears of Namibian voters as they elected a constituent assembly. In the balloting, the first major step toward independence, the Marxist South West African People's Organization won most of the votes, about 75%, according to unofficial figures. But SWAPO fell short of the two-thirds majority it was predicting and thus was denied total power to write a new constitution.

This is despite the fact that to Namibians, who have been ruled by South Africa since 1915, democracy is a foreign concept. The administrator general and the U.N. Transitional Assistance Group, or UNTAG, had been busy correcting widespread misconceptions about election rules. The unfamiliarity with the voting process, combined with Namibia's 60% illiteracy rate, opened the door for intimidation and deception tactics by many of Namibia's political parties.

For instance, some Namibians were led to believe that political parties would be informed about how their votes were cast and that there would be retribution if they voted for a rival party. Several SWAPO leaders went so far as to threaten that if SWAPO failed to gain 50% of the vote, they might renew the guerrilla war SWAPO has waged for 23 years. This tactic may have been perhaps the most intimidating of all, because it turned the election into a referendum on the war.

Stories abound of political parties spreading deliberate disinformation about the voting. During the campaign, SWAPO reportedly told many Namibians to `put a big `X' on the SWAPO ballot if you support SWAPO, but if you are against us, put a small `x' on the SWAPO ballot.'

Like other African independence elections, Namibia's constituent-assembly elections may have been its last. Though SWAPO now contends that it is prepared, if necessary, to work with other parties to develop a coalition government, it has strong totalitarian inclinations, and fear is widespread that a SWAPO-dominated government would lead Namibia into one-party rule.

There is concern that SWAPO will not respect rival opinions in the prospective coalition, and may use the constituent assembly as a stepping stone to total control in Namibia, similar to the approach used by the Marxist-Leninist factor of the Sandinistas following the overthrow of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua. Werner Neef, an adviser to the Christian Democratic Action Party, says that the CDA will not join a coalition with SWAPO.

The SWAPO victory could lead to ethnic-based violence. SWAPO's power base is rooted in Namibia's largest tribe, the northern-based Ovambos. Indeed, SWAPO lost Namibia outside of Ovambo territory to the free-market Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, winning overall only because it defeated the Alliance by 197,000 votes to 9,200 in the northern region of Ovambo.

There are fears that an Ovambo-based SWAPO government might persecute other tribes such as the Hereros, Namas and Bushmen. SWAPO has admitted keeping many non-Ovambos in underground pits in its camps in Angola and Zambia and torturing them as `spies.'

SWAPO's win also raises security concerns. Since 1964, SWAPO has received financial and military support from the Soviet Union, and SWAPO leader Sam Nujoma has boasted of his strong alliance with Cuba's Fidel Castro, SWAPO also enjoys close relations with the African National Congress, which sent SWAPO 300 minibuses to assist in getting SWAPO supporters to the polls.

There is deep concern that the SWAPO-dominated government may attempt to model Namibia after its northern neighbor, Angola, by bringing in Cuban troops and Soviet military advisers. There is even deeper concern that SWAPO may cooperate with the Angolan regime in launching military attacks against Jonas Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, which is based in southern Angola. However, South Africa's proximity and may force SWAPO military restraint.

SWAPO's ecomomic vision is no more promising, but its traditional Marxist-Leninist rhetoric moderated considerably during the campaign. SWAPO told foreign investors recently that is does not support wholesale nationalization, and Mr. Nujoma has said that he does not wish the country's 70,000 whites to flee since their technical and management skills are needed. But according to Mishake Muyongo of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, which got 29% of the votes. `SWAPO will say in public `We want whites here,' but then in private they will turn around and say `Get rid of these people.' '

For southern Africa, the outcome of Namibia's independence process will be critical for the strategic and economic composition of the region. With Namibia's mineral wealth and abundant land (the country is twice the size of France), a moderate, free-market approach by the country's new government could lead to strong economic growth, perhaps making Namibia a regional success story among the underdeveloped front-line states. Conversely, a statist, authoritarian approach by Namibia will likely sway the regional political and economic balance in the other direction.

The outcome is equally important for the U.N., which, as the monitor of Namibia's independence process, has embarked on one of its most ambitious missions to date. More than 6,200 members of UNTAG are in the country to oversee the process, and the U.N. brought in more than 1,000 additional personnel to serve as official election observers.

Having funded SWAPO, given it observer status in New York, and recognized it as `the sole, authentic representative of the Namibian people' in General Assembly resolutions, the U.N.'s capability for objectivity is in justifiable doubt. Indeed, several Namibian political parties contend that the U.N.'s longstanding finanical and diplomatic support for SWAPO tipped the scale in SWAPO that is now taking issue with the U.N.'s formal declaration after the polls closed that the five-days elections were `free and fair.'

But perhaps the greatest irony of the Namibian independence process is the composition of the member nations represented in UNTAG. Nondemocratic nations such as Cuba, Libya, Romania, East Germany and the U.S.S.R. have been sent to Namibia to oversee democratic procedures that they forbid in their own countries.

For Namibians, the concern is not merely that many of these countries have their own dubious agenda in southern Africa, but also that the political system of an independent Namibia may soon be shaped in their image.

Source: US Library of Congress

"The Purple Shall Govern"

On September 2 1989 anti-apartheid protesters marching on Parliament were stopped by police near this spot. They mounted an impromptu sit-in and police retaliated with tear gas, batons and a new weapon: a water cannon laced with purple dye to stain demonstrators and make them easier to identify and detain. As protesters scattered, one climbed onto the armoured vehicle with the cannon and turned the purple jet on police. Purple dye stained most of the surrounding buildings, including the National Party headquarters and the white-washed walls of the historic Old Townhouse. The next day graffiti all over the city proclaimed "The Purple Shall Govern". This was one of the last protest marches outlawed by the apartheid government. Eleven days later, 30 000 people marched through the city without police intervention.

De Klerk Becomes Pretoria President

F. W. de Klerk was sworn in today as Acting President of South Africa and said that the country was about to enter an era of change. Mr. de Klerk reaffirmed his promises to phase out white rule and involve blacks in talks about South Africa's future, but without submitting whites to what he has called majority domination. ''There is no doubt that we stand on the threshold of a new era in South and southern Africa,'' Mr. de Klerk, the National Party leader, said in a prepared statement. ''History, I believe, offers us a unique opportunity for peaceful solutions.'' Expected to Be President

Mr. de Klerk is widely expected to become President if the National Party wins the parliamentary elections on Sept. 6, as seems probable. The low-key inauguration, in the presidential wing of the Union Buildings, was attended only by his wife, Marike, other Cabinet ministers and a few dozen journalists. At a news conference afterward, Mr. de Klerk paid tribute to his predecessor, P. W. Botha, who resigned on Monday after losing a confrontation with Mr. de Klerk and other members of his Cabinet. Mr. Botha refused to appoint a successor, so Mr. de Klerk was unanimously chosen by his colleagues to fill the vacancy.

Mr. de Klerk said Mr. Botha's ''greatest gift to South Africa'' was that ''he has put our country on the road to fundamental reform, that he successfully started pulling South Africa out of its dead-end streets and that he guided us in the direction of a totally new dispensation.'' A Contrast in Tone Mr. de Klerk's magnanimity contrasted conspicuously with the tone of Mr. Botha's address on Monday night, when he complained that his Cabinet ministers were ignoring him and that Mr. de Klerk was to travel to Zambia to meet President Kenneth D. Kaunda without his permission. Mr. Botha met with Mr. Kaunda in April 1982. Mr. de Klerk told reporters today that his new responsibilities might preclude the visit to Zambia. But tonight, it was disclosed that he had written President Kaunda, saying that he and Foreign Minister Roelof F. Botha would meet the Zambian leader as scheduled in Livingston on Aug. 28. The Foreign Minister's office released the text of a letter that Mr. Kaunda had written earlier assuring President Botha that he did not mean to undercut him but wanted to meet Mr. de Klerk as a person who would occupy a leadership position in the region.

In response to another question, Mr. de Klerk also said that Nelson R. Mandela, South Africa's best-known political prisoner, would not be released before a President was chosen by the electoral college on Sept. 14, a day after the new Parliament is to be convened. Mr. de Klerk said he should not ''in any way whatsoever try to arrange the future'' in his temporary capacity. Frosty Relations Since February Political analysts here said that President Botha, in taking his leave of politics, had tried to hurt Mr. de Klerk and the National Party by sowing doubts about their motives among the white electorate. Mr. de Klerk replaced Mr. Botha as party leader in February after Mr. Botha suffered a stroke, and their relations have been frosty since.

The reaction today of the South African press and public to Mr. Botha's resignation appeared to be one of relief. Business Day, the country's leading financial newspaper, said that ''seldom, if ever, has this country had a leader more widely detested,'' and added, ''It is well that he is gone.'' But one political analyst noted that Mr. Botha still commanded respect among some traditional National Party constituencies and that some whites might vote for the opposition, the right-wing Conservative Party, if they felt the retiring President had been ill used by his party. When a reporter asked Mr. de Klerk about his plans, he replied, ''We want to build a new South Africa in which all people will participate in decisions affecting their lives at all levels of government, but in such a way that no one group amongst the diversity which we have in South Africa will be in a position to dominate others.''

Source: New York Times

Botha, Rebuffed by His Party, Quits South Africa Presidency

P. W. Botha quit under pressure tonight as South Africa's President, complaining that his Cabinet ministers were ignoring him. His announcement, delivered in a disjointed and rambling address in Afrikaans on national television, followed a Cabinet meeting this morning in which the 73-year-old Mr. Botha lost a confrontation he had forced with F. W. de Klerk, his successor as leader of the governing National Party.

At issue was Mr. de Klerk's right to travel to Zambia later this month to meet President Kenneth D. Kaunda without getting Mr. Botha's approval first. But this was overshadowed by a wide perception among politicians, journalists and ordinary South Africans that the President had been trying to undercut Mr. de Klerk since the latter succeeded him as National Party leader about six months ago. President Botha said he would not approve Mr. de Klerk's trip to Zambia because President Kaunda has given refuge to the outlawed African National Congress, which is seeking to overthrow the white Government in Pretoria, and has encouraged foreign pressure on South Africa. ''I am of the opinion that it is inopportune to meet with President Kaunda at this stage,'' Mr. Botha said.

The President announced his resignation 23 days before the next parliamentary elections, which are the toughest the National Party has faced since it came to power in 1948. Mr. de Klerk has been trying to rally the party against its opponents, the right-wing Conservative Party and the liberal Democratic Party, in what has so far been a lackluster campaign for control of the white house of Parliament, and thus the Government. Had Mr. de Klerk not stood up to Mr. Botha today, his credibility as the leader of a party under fire would have been compromised and the likelihood of becoming the next President diminished. In his remarks, Mr. Botha disclosed that Mr. de Klerk and his allies proposed at today's Cabinet meeting that the President, who suffered a stroke in January, retire on grounds of ill health. Mr. Botha said he replied that could not leave ''with such a lie. It is evident to me that after all these years of my best efforts for the National Party and for the Government of this country as well as the security of this country, I am being ignored by ministers in my Cabinet,'' the South African President said. ''I consequently have no choice other than to announce my resignation.''

Mr. Botha, who submitted his resignation to Chief Justice Michael Corbett, did not name a successor. Foreign Minister Roelof F. Botha, who is not related to the President, indicated in a television interview tonight that Mr. de Klerk would be sworn in on Tuesday. The South African Constitution says that a Cabinet minister chosen by his colleagues may be acting President. It is expected that Mr. de Klerk will be elected President after the elections on Sept. 6. In a television interview after President Botha's announcement, Mr. de Klerk and Foreign Minister Botha took polite exception to the President's remarks. ''We are sad that a man who has done so much for his country has to retire under these unhappy circumstances,'' Mr. de Klerk said. Effects on Nation's Politics

He confirmed that the Cabinet ministers had suggested that Mr. Botha resign on grounds of poor health. ''We felt that his state of health justified this,'' Mr. de Klerk said, reinforcing a public perception that the stroke had affected the President more than he admitted. It appears likely that the National Party will win the election, but with a smaller majority in Parliament. The resignation was expected to help the party by reinforcing the image it is cultivating as a force for evolutionary change in South Africa.

The change in leadership is unlikely to immediately affect the situation of the black majority, which is excluded from the parliamentary elections. Though Mr. de Klerk is perceived as more enlightened than President Botha, he still supports the basic concept of racially separate groups and has promised that an end to white control will not lead to domination by the black majority. It was an ignominious finish to the career of a politician who began as a National Party organizer 54 years ago. Mr. Botha was elected to Parliament in 1948. He became Defense Minister in 1966, Prime Minister in 1978 and President in 1984 under a new constitution that combined the duties of heads of state and government. For a decade, he was simultaneously the National Party leader.

Under his rule, the South African Army became the most powerful military force in Africa. But Mr. Botha also promised political change and expanded the whites-only Parliament to include smaller chambers representing South Africans of mixed race and of Asian descent. After the President suffered his stroke on Jan. 18, his aides described it as a mild one. But Mr. Botha sent a letter to National Party members of Parliament on Feb. 2, announcing that he was stepping down as National Party leader, though not as President, and asking them to choose a successor. The legislators elected Mr. de Klerk.

Mr. Botha, who was understood to have preferred Finance Minister Barend du Plessis, never publicly congratulated Mr. de Klerk. And he remained as President, in a position to block any decisions by Mr. de Klerk. Old Scores Settled But Mr. de Klerk quickly won the loyalty of the party's members of Parliament, who had chafed under Mr. Botha's sometimes autocratic leadership. After Mr. Kaunda announced last Thursday that he would meet Mr. de Klerk, President Botha called a special Cabinet meeting for today to discuss the offer. Mr. de Klerk outflanked him by getting the backing of the other Cabinet ministers.

The President, in objecting to Mr. de Klerk's plans to meet President Kaunda, made no mention of his own meeting with the Zambian leader on South Africa's frontier with Botswana on April 30, 1982, when Mr. Kaunda was, if anything, even less sympathetic toward Pretoria. But his portrayal of Mr. de Klerk's pending trip to Zambia as unpatriotic did not seem likely to scuttle it, unless President Kaunda chooses to take umbrage at Mr. Botha's criticism or Mr. de Klerk decides it would hurt the party in the coming elections. Foreign Minister Botha observed that ''in every other African state except Lesotho and Swaziland, there is an A.N.C. presence.''

Source: New York Times

South Africa's Tide Shifts

Nelson Mandela holds the keys. He is South Africa's true jailer, and the country's white leaders his prisoners. That is the pronounced significance of Mr. Mandela's visit from prison to President Pieter W. Botha and the trek of Frederik W. de Klerk, Mr. Botha's heir-in-waiting, to the capitals of Europe. Soon Mr. de Klerk will visit Washington. A major U.S. initiative is possible.

Mr. Mandela's tea with President Botha need not mean his imminent release from detention after 26 years. Nor does his recent family birthday party in prison, his comparatively comfortable accommodations there and the attention being paid to him and his movements by all South Africans. Nevertheless, the gradual shift of Mr. Mandela, 71, from antihero to hero, is intended by the white-minority Government to confer a new legitimacy on him and, according to a recent speech by Mr. de Klerk, also on the African National Congress, Mr. Mandela's exiled and banned guerrilla movememt.

Mr. Botha, Mr. de Klerk and most other white political leaders now know that Mr. Mandela and the A.N.C. are essential to any solution of South Africa's color crisis. Mr. Botha wanted, in the last three months of his tenure as President, to measure the mettle of his foremost adversary. He and Mr. de Klerk at last well appreciate that he must be released. But when? And how? To free Mr. Mandela before the national election on Sept. 6 (from which black voters are excluded), would adversely affect the fortunes of Mr. de Klerk's ruling National Party. Mr. Botha might release him during those few weeks after the election when he is still in power, before turning the presidency over to Mr. de Klerk. But a new government would be ill-equipped to deal with the tumultuous result. Moreover, the National Party is also intensely interested in the results of the Constituent Assembly election in neighboring Namibia. The election there will be held Nov. 1, and the National Party hopes to obtain as many votes as possible for the white-led Democratic Turnhalle Alliance in its competition with the South West Africa People's Organization. Although there is a conference of Commonwealth heads in late October, and Mr. Mandela's release would prevent any renewed threat of sanctions and gain South Africa the backing of Britain, the impact of such a release on the Namibian election would prove more decisive for South Africa. For these reasons, and because Mr. de Klerk will, understandably, want carefully to prepare South Africa for Mr. Mandela's release, the beginning of the end of apartheid is not yet at hand.

The fact that white South Africa courts Mr. Mandela, may even be negotiating at a low level with the A.N.C. and hardly tries to prevent large delegations from making the trek to Lusaka, Zambia, to meet and be impressed by the A.N.C. leaders, adds excitement and new hope to those who seek peace in South Africa. Certainly the African National Congress, having largely shed its rampant Marxism in the post-Gorbachev era, is ready to help plan South Africa's future with whites. Both sides are studying constitutional options anew. Once Mr. Mandela is free, other political prisoners are released and the A.N.C. unbanned, then the guerilla movement, internal African opponents of apartheid and the Government will be able to negotiate.

That scenario, once a fantasy, is now - according to the representatives of the Government and A.N.C. -very much closer at hand than at any time since 1948. No one believes the National Party wants to give up all its power, but a weariness of combat and miserable economic forecasts impel change. South Africa has severe balance of payments problems, high inflation, a falling index of business confidence and little room for maneuver. Only a political settlement can permit a return to positive rates of growth. Mr. de Klerk will come to power knowing that Mr. Mandela's freedom and negotiations with the A.N.C. are the costs of prosperity.

When Mr. de Klerk visits Washington this month to see Secretary of State James Baker, many Congressmen and perhaps President Bush, he can be reminded how much the U.S. wants to see a negotiated settlement. More than that, Mr. Baker or Mr. Bush can offer to convene and preside over a Camp David session for South Africa. It might even make sense for President Bush to offer to preside with Mikhael Gorbachev, who also wants a negotiated peace in South Africa. The African National Congress is ready to talk, and so might whites be also willing to talk, realistically in a prestigious setting about their future in a united South Africa.

Source: New York Times

The Role of the Socialist

The Socialist International was founded a hundred years ago in order to coordinate the worldwide struggle of democratic socialist movements for social justice, human dignity and democracy.

Democratic socialism is an international movement for freedom, social justice and solidarity. Its goal is to achieve a peaceful world where these basic values can be enhanced and where each individual can live a meaningful life with the full development of his or her personality and talents and with the guarantee of human and civil rights in a democratic framework of society.

The idea of democracy is based on the principles of freedom and equality. Therefore, equal rights for men and women - not only in theory, but also in practice, at work, in the family and in all areas of social life - are part of the socialist concept of society.

Individual rights are fundamental to the values of socialism. Democracy and human rights are also the substance of popular power, and the indispensable mechanism whereby people can control the economic structures which have so long dominated them. Without democracy, social policies cannot disguise the dictatorial character of a government

Freedom from arbitrary and dictatorial government is essential. It constitutes the precondition whereby peoples and societies can create a new and better world of peace and international cooperation - a world in which political, economic and social destinies will be democratically determined.

In addition to the principles which guide all democratic socialists, there is a clear consensus among socialists on fundamental values. Despite all diversity, it is common ground that democracy and human rights are not simply political means to socialist ends but the very substance of those ends - a democratic economy and society.

Individual freedom and basic rights in society are the preconditions of human dignity for all. These rights cannot replace one another, nor can they be played off against each other. Socialists protect the inalienable right to life and to physical safety, to freedom of belief and free expression of opinion, to freedom of association and to protection from torture and degradation. Socialists are committed to achieve freedom from hunger and want, genuine social security, and the right to work.

Inequality between men and women is the most pervasive form of oppression in human history. It may be traced almost to the origin of the species itself and has persisted in almost every socio-economic order to the present time.

In order to generate employment and prosperity all across the world, there is a need for ecologically balanced development. Growth which is not designed to meet ecological and social imperatives runs counter to progress, since it will cause environmental damage and destroy jobs. The market system alone can never ensure the attainment of the social goals of economic growth. It is the legitimate function of democratic economic policy to promote development which opens up future opportunities while improving the quality of life.

To achieve these objectives on a global basis, it is imperative to establish a genuinely new international economic order. This must reconcile the interests of both industrialised and developing countries. A fundamental reform of financial relations must create the conditions for international economic cooperation. A more equitable international economic order is necessary not only for reasons of solidarity, but also in order to create a more efficient, productive and balanced world economy.

It is unrealistic to assume that justice and peace can be legislated in a world of fundamental inequality where many millions barely cling to life while a favoured few enjoy a standard beyond the dreams of most of their fellow human beings. Socialist struggles in the original capitalist nations made gains in welfare and solidarity, which in turn made the extension of democracy possible in individual countries. Likewise the work of abolishing international inequality will be a crucial step forward on the road to a democratic world society.

Source: http://www.socialistinternational.org