WORLD : De Klerk Agrees to His 1st Meeting With Tutu, Other Apartheid Foes
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — President Frederik W. de Klerk today agreed to meet with Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and two other church anti-apartheid leaders next week for unprecedented talks about South Africa’s racial conflict.
De Klerk immediately agreed to a request by the church leaders for urgent talks “about the crisis in our land,” the president’s office said.
It will be De Klerk’s first direct meeting with top anti-apartheid leaders since he replaced Pieter W. Botha as president Aug. 15. The meeting has been scheduled Wednesday in Pretoria.
Tutu, who was in the United States today, released a statement through his office in Cape Town saying he and his colleagues believe De Klerk “does not appreciate the far-reaching nature of the steps he must take to get negotiations off the ground” between blacks and government leaders.
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