SOUTH AFRICA THE BOOT COMES DOWN Emergency rule declared amid unrest and outrage

By Michael S. Serrill.

South African folklore contains proud tales of ''going into the laager.'' During the 19th century, Afrikaner settlers under attack would form their wagons into a circle, set up a line of defense and then bravely fight off the fierce black tribesmen. Last week the South African government went into a new kind of laager. At 12:01 a.m. Thursday, thousands of gun-toting police and troops rumbled out of their stations and barracks in the armored personnel carriers that are today's covered wagons. By the time dawn broke, authorities had rousted out of bed and taken into custody hundreds of antiapartheid activists, and assumed positions on city streets and in black townships. In the folklore of the country's Afrikaners, the settlers almost always win. But it was far from clear last week whether this modern laager would quell South Africa's latest siege of violence or lead to even greater disorder. The extreme show of force was part of a new, nationwide state of emergency declared by the beleaguered government of State President P.W. Botha. The decree gives South African security forces unprecedented powers to make arrests without charge, hold detainees without hearings for unlimited periods, search any home or office without warrant, ban meetings and impose press censorship. Police and troops were given authority to use whatever force they deem necessary to break up illegal gatherings, and cannot be taken to court in any criminal or civil prosecution for actions they take in ''good faith.'' The emergency powers are the most drastic yet in the government's effort to crush a black rebellion that in the past 21 months has taken more than 1,700 lives, almost all of them black. Colin Eglin, leader of the white opposition Progressive Federal Party, called the decree ''the most severe clampdown on civil liberty and the most far-reaching denial of freedom of speech and assembly and the press in the history of South Africa.'' The government brought down this boot on the very day that a group of Commonwealth statesmen were holding a press conference in London to release a / report that denounces the South African government for blocking negotiations with the country's black leaders, especially the jailed Nelson Mandela. The so-called Eminent Persons Group that drew up the report warned that unless the Commonwealth nations take strong new measures to force the South African government to change its policies, there ''could be the worst bloodbath since the Second World War.'' The immediate justification for the new state of emergency was the preparation for a series of strikes, demonstrations and vigils by antiapartheid groups to commemorate the tenth anniversary of a June 1976 uprising in Soweto, the sprawling township outside Johannesburg that houses some 2 million blacks. That riot touched off a year of protests in which more than 600 people died, and has become a milestone in the struggle for black rights. Two weeks ago, Law and Order Minister Louis LeGrange issued a blanket ban on all meetings commemorating the Soweto uprising. The activists, comprising hundreds of black groups, swore that they would go through with their plans. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel prizewinner and primate of the South African Anglican Church, asked his churches to hold services on the anniversary and urged his followers to attend. Last week's action marked the second time in less than a year that the Botha government has resorted to emergency measures. But the first time, which lasted seven months and ended March 7, the decree was confined to areas of black unrest around Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, and did not give the police such sweeping new power. Even so, 8,000 people were arrested during that period. In a speech before Parliament announcing the new state of emergency, State President Botha justified its nationwide scope by charging that the ''radical and revolutionary elements'' planning the Soweto commemoration ''pose a real danger for all population groups in our country.'' Said he: ''The ordinary laws of the land are inadequate to ensure the security of the public and to maintain public order.''

The establishment of the national state of emergency was not announced until Thursday at noon, twelve hours after the order had gone into effect. By that time hundreds of citizens of all races had heard a knock on the door and been quickly shuffled away. At least 1,000 student leaders, union and church officials and others were arrested in the initial sweeps. Prime targets were members of the groups pushing hardest for the Soweto commemoration. They included leaders of the United Democratic Front, an umbrella organization that claims 2 million members, and the black-power Azanian People's Organization. Heavily armed troops restricted entry to the headquarters of a number of trade-union, civil rights and religious organizations. Armored personnel carriers patrolled Soweto and allowed in only residents. An important target of the crackdown was the press, which is subject to sweeping new restrictions. As in the previous emergency, no television or photo coverage of unrest is permitted, and print reporters can be excluded from specific trouble spots. But the new order goes much further, prohibiting the press, domestic and foreign, from printing the names of any of those arrested and forbidding it to publish ''subversive statements'' that call for strikes, boycotts or any kind of resistance to the government's effort to maintain order. The government has also given itself the right to close down any press organization that breaks the rules. Shortly after the beginning of the state of emergency, plainclothes security police invaded the printing plant of the liberal Weekly Mail and tried to halt its pressrun. Failing that, they later impounded all copies of the issue from news dealers. Police also seized Friday's issue of the black-run paper the Sowetan, which carried a front-page editorial calling on the government to resign. ''South Africa cannot afford any more of this madness,'' the paper said. The foreign press corps was also severely restricted, though there was no censorship of outgoing dispatches. On Friday the government ordered a CBS cameraman out of the country, giving no reason for his expulsion. The initial effect of the crackdown was tense confrontations and more bloodshed. Two days after the state of emergency began, authorities reported that twelve people had been killed, one shot by police and the rest in what was described as ''black-on-black'' violence. On Saturday night two white women were killed when a bomb exploded in Durban. Seventy-three students were reportedly arrested in Soweto for violating a ban on gatherings on school grounds, and police dispersed a demonstration by 300 medical students in Durban with warning shots. The worst violence in South Africa last week had come before the state of emergency, when groups of militant black youths called ''comrades'' battled conservative black vigilantes known as ''fathers'' in Crossroads, the squalid squatter camp outside Cape Town. In four days of furious fighting with axes, iron bars and some guns, at least 24 people were killed, including one South African journalist, and more than 65,000 left homeless. The victorious ''fathers'' burned to the ground thousands of ramshackle dwellings on the edge of the camp that had housed the ''comrades'' and their families. By week's end a truce negotiated by Archbishop Tutu was in effect. Tutu was spared by the police dragnet. In fact, after the government crackdown was announced, State President Botha agreed to see the religious leader. The two talked for 90 minutes, and afterward Tutu said he warned Botha that the emergency decree would not work. ''This is not likely to restore law- and-order,'' Tutu said. ''If we do have any calm, it will be brittle, it will be sullen, and at the slightest chance it will be broken again.'' International leaders were unanimous in condemning the new state of emergency. The Reagan Administration issued a statement saying that ''such repressive measures are a serious mistake.'' Reagan, when asked for comment, startled reporters by saying, ''What we're seeing is an outright civil war.'' He called for restraint by all South Africans. Canada revoked the accreditation of four South African diplomats and threatened to take stronger measures ''if the South African government continues to refuse to enter a dialogue except on its own narrow terms.'' The U.N. Security Council also condemned the crackdown and said it would hold the South African government responsible for any bloodshed. But foreign protests have so far had little impact on South Africa. In his speech on the emergency order, Botha said that the government was ''well aware that stricter security measures will elicit strong criticism and even punitive measures from the outside world.'' Later he declared that if more sanctions are applied and South Africa has to go it alone, ''then I say, let it be. We have the faith, the inherent ability and the natural resources to ensure our future. South Africa will not crawl before anyone.'' The new state of emergency, though, could lead to stronger action than just diplomatic protests. The Eminent Persons Group report increased pressure on Britain to take some punitive measures. That country has by far the biggest economic stake in South Africa, including investments of $18 billion and nearly $3 billion in annual trade. Until now, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has refused to consider sanctions, arguing that the measures simply do not work and would primarily hurt the blacks they are designed to help. At a meeting of the 49 Commonwealth nations in the Bahamas last fall, Thatcher stood alone in refusing to consider sanctions. She deflected the pressure from her colleagues by agreeing to the formation of the Eminent Persons Group, a delegation of seven statesmen whose job was to try to persuade the Botha government to negotiate with its black opponents. The E.P.G.'s mission was cut abruptly short last month when, at the very time it was trying to get the warring parties together, South African military forces launched strikes against supposed terrorist bases in Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. During their mission, E.P.G. members had been permitted to meet with Mandela three times at Pollsmoor Prison outside Cape Town. The black nationalist leader has been imprisoned for almost 25 years on charges of treason, and during that time has become a symbol of black oppression in South Africa. For the first time since he was imprisoned, Mandela was allowed to discuss politics during the visits of E.P.G. members. They found him to be a ''commanding presence'' who ''exuded authority'' and had a firm grasp of the issues. Although South African officials say that Mandela's release would lead to violence, the E.P.G. believes that he would ''appeal for calm.'' While stopping short of formally recommending new economic sanctions, the Commonwealth report did say that only ''concerted action of an effective kind'' can curb the spiral of violence. After the report was issued, a high British government official conceded that general agreement has been reached that ''we must do something to show our abhorrence of what is happening in South Africa.'' Even Queen Elizabeth II has indicated that action must be taken. At least one national leader in the group, President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, has threatened to withdraw from the Commonwealth if Britain does not do something. Said the British official: ''Her Majesty would not be pleased if anything were done that imperiled the Commonwealth of which she is the head.'' What kind of punitive measures the Thatcher government might take was being debated last week. Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe will soon begin talks with the U.S., the European Community and Japan. He hopes to come up with a plan for a joint approach that Britain would present to the Commonwealth countries when they meet in London on Aug. 2 to consider the recommendations of the E.P.G. Thatcher has made it clear that she still will not consider stopping all trade with South Africa. Other, less stringent steps that might be taken include the ending of new investment in that country and the curtailment of government contracts with South African firms. But even in the face of additional sanctions, the South African government seems likely to curl further in upon itself, to make a tighter laager of the white wagons of apartheid and try once again to tough it out. While such a strategy may work in the short term, it is unlikely to succeed for very long. The E.P.G. report concluded that the black majority must ultimately prevail, either by negotiation or by revolution. Said the report: ''South Africa is predominantly a country of black people. To believe that they can be indefinitely suppressed is an act of selfdelusion.''

With reporting by Frank Melville/London and Bruce W. Nelan/Johannesburg