Violence In Ciskei

The grisly outcome was predictable. The 60,000 African National Congress supporters who marched to the border of South Africa's so-called independent homeland of Ciskei were not unexpected. The chanting A.N.C. demonstrators had vowed to storm the capital, Bisho, and unseat the military government of Brigadier Oupa Gqozo. When they broke through a gap in a razor-wire fence at the border, trigger-happy troops of the Ciskei army began shooting directly into the crowd. After two prolonged bursts of gunfire, 28 people lay dead in pools of blood; another 400 were wounded, either by gunfire or in the stampede that followed.

The retributions were equally predictable. The A.N.C. blamed the government of President F.W. de Klerk, which props up the puppet Ciskei regime and trains its army. The incident, said A.N.C. President Nelson Mandela, will add to De Klerk's "roll call of infamy." The South African President said he had warned Mandela of the possibility of violence in the A.N.C.'s mass-action campaign against Ciskei and announced that there could no longer be any political negotiations with the A.N.C. until the question of the "vortex of violence" had been dealt with.

Ironically, the bloodshed on the road to Bisho may serve to bring De Klerk and Mandela together. The A.N.C. said it was "prepared to participate" in a summit which would break months of bitter estrangement between the two leaders. And Foreign Minister R.F. ("Pik") Botha has asked the United Nations not just for observers but also for a mediator to help curb the violence and get the constitutional negotiations back on track. Given the mutual mistrust that has existed for decades between South Africa and the U.N., that appeal underlined South Africa's desperation.