World Notes DIPLOMACY

Outside the State Department, a knot of conservative protesters shouted, "Tambo, go home!" and "The A.N.C. means the KGB!" Inside, Secretary of State George Shultz was closeted with Oliver Tambo, the leader of South Africa's outlawed black revolutionary organization, the African National Congress. It was the first time a senior U.S. official had met with a leader of the banned A.N.C., and marked a broadening of the Administration's policy of "constructive engagement" with the South African government.

Both men approached the meeting with a determination not to budge on matters of principle. Shultz, interested in exploring a U.S. role as mediator between the A.N.C. and the government of State President P.W. Botha, has expressed strong reservations about the A.N.C.'s ties with Moscow and its increasing ^ embrace of violence. Tambo has sharply questioned past U.S. policy and remained stubbornly unmoved by attacks on the A.N.C. for its Communist links.

As expected, neither man gave much ground. The Secretary protested the A.N.C.'s Soviet backing and condemned tactics like "necklacing," the grisly practice of murdering blacks believed to be government collaborators by placing around their neck a gasoline-doused tire and lighting it. Tambo, who defended the use of violence on several occasions during his two-week U.S. visit, countered that the time for passive resistance to white oppression had passed. Said he: "We hope we can establish the same relationship between the U.S. that we have with European and even socialist countries." After 50 minutes the two agreed only on their mutual interest in ending the system of apartheid.