
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 30, 1990                   TAG: 9007020167
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MANDELA'S TOUR

NELSON MANDELA has taken America's population centers by storm. This week he has been greeted by a tickertape parade and idolized in New York's Harlem; has addressed a rally in Yankee Stadium and a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly; met with (and lectured) President Bush; spoken to a rapt assemblage of government leaders in Washington; and ridden off in a cloud of dust for Atlanta, Miami and points west.

The recently liberated African National Congress leader is on a 14-nation tour. He is not only receiving adulation almost everywhere he goes; he is also scattering praise for some unlikely individuals, such as Libya's Moammar Gadhafy and Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Those actions give reason to question his tactics if not his judgment.

Mandela merits admiration for his courage and perseverance during 27 years of unjust imprisonment in South Africa. (He may be due, as well, an official American apology for the CIA's role in his capture in the 1960s.) He deserves respect for adhering, these long years, to the goal of freedom for his fellow blacks in their home country. As a leader of an oppressed people, he is due attention and his advice should be heard if not always taken.

It must be kept in mind, however, that while Mandela is a global figure in today's human-rights struggle, he is only a man - and only one black leader in South Africa. His decades behind bars have not endowed him with all earthly wisdom. Indeed, certain of his actions and pronouncements suggest that in some ways, his thinking is stuck in a time warp a decade or more old.

Nor does his international standing necessarily endow him with cachet to set down terms for interracial peace and governmental compromise between whites and blacks in his country. He leads the ANC, but that group - while large - is not the sole representative of South African blacks. Practically speaking, it is not in a very strong negotiating position right now, either.

Mandela probably recognizes this, as well as the fact that his own position will be enhanced by precisely the kind of triumphal tour he is taking. Apartheid is very much on the defensive now, for which the rest of the world should be thankful. As Mandela advises (and as Bush agrees), U.S. economic sanctions should remain in place until Pretoria has made further concessions.

Mandela's refusal to commit to a mutual and general halt to violence in South Africa is less acceptable. Only a couple of years ago, when whites held all the power - physical as well as political - and did not hesitate to use it against blacks, that left the voiceless oppressed few alternatives for resistance. Violence was easier to justify then.

Now the mood in South Africa is changing, the government is willing to negotiate, and there could be no better time for all parties to try setting violence aside. Urged by Bush to take part in such a general renunciation, Mandela said no. That is disappointing. It is also added evidence that Mandela is no god.

by CNB