Zulu

ULUNDI, South Africa -- If there is going to be a civil war in the Natal region of South Africa, then the 2,000 men leaving this camp packed into trucks and buses will probably be among its soldiers.The men are returning to their Zulu communities throughout the KwaZulu homeland after four weeks of training. They have been whipped into shape with running and calisthenics. They have been taught to march and drill. They've been run through an obstacle course.They can take apart and put together automatic and semiautomatic rifles while blindfolded.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A long-anticipated summit between leaders of the South African government, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Zulu people ended late last night with this country no closer to finding a solution to its escalating violence.Trying to put a good face on what had clearly been a frustrating seven hours of talks, President F. W. de Klerk, ANC President Nelson Mandela, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini told a news conference that their main conclusion was that yet another committee would be established to examine the issues.

ULUNDI, South Africa -- Mangosuthu Buthelezi becomes visibly annoyed at the suggestion that he might enhance his stature by rubbing shoulders with Nelson Mandela.He waves his arms. He locks his fingers and twiddles his thumbs. He twists around in his chair. And he dismisses the suggestion with colorful terms like "balder--," "rubbish" and "crap."Mr. Buthelezi is a prince of the Zulu tribe, which once reigned supreme in southern Africa, and he speaks proudly of the "warrior blood in our veins."

When a distinguished international blue ribbon panel was finally called in to mediate South Africa's internal dispute in ZTC advance of elections, it was a dispute between two black political parties, not between the old white power structure and the racially dispossessed.And it was for this that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger returned to international diplomacy and public life after 17 years in the private sector as a business consultant and pundit.Mr. Kissinger leads a team of seven distinguished figures who command respect, including Lord Carrington, the former British defense and foreign secretary, and A. Leon Higginbotham, a leading African-American jurist who has retired as chief judge of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- Cries of "cover-up" and "murder" rang out in the South African Parliament yesterday as President Nelson Mandela came under fire for his role in the deaths of eight people outside the headquarters of the African National Congress before last year's national elections.Members of Parliament were debating Mr. Mandela's admission last week that he had ordered ANC security guards to kill if necessary in order to protect the ANC building in Johannesburg, when thousands of Zulus filled the downtown streets in an anti-election demonstration.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A prominent black leader accused Nelson Mandela's political organization yesterday of trying to seize power and of taking actions that would lead to civil war in South Africa.The verbal attack by Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi signaled the collapse of a 2-month-old peace accord between Mr. Mandela's African National Congress and Mr. Buthelezi's Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, the ANC's major black rival.It also created another problem for South Africa's already-jeopardized peace process, which is supposed to result in an end to apartheid and the drafting of a new democratic constitution for this racially divided country.

DURBAN, South Africa -- After one of the bloodiest weeks in this country's recent history, the military has deployed up to 850 more combat troops to violence-scarred Zulu townships of Natal Province to enforce a state of emergency, which, so far, has failed to curb bitter factional fighting.Yesterday's reinforcements, drawn from infantry and light artillery reserve units in Natal, brings the total force here to about 2,000 troops. More forces will be deployed April 15 for about a month to cover the volatile province during the April 26-28 election and its aftermath, the military said.

DURBAN, South Africa -- Nelson Mandela and Zulu leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi embraced each other and issued a plea for peace yesterday, ending a bitter split that contributed to years of bloodletting and thousands of deaths among their followers.Mr. Mandela, deputy president of the African National Congress, said the meeting was a major breakthrough in the political war between his organization and Mr. Buthelezi's Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party."We . . . call upon all our people as well as our allies to cease all attacks against one another with immediate effect and to promote the quest for peace within our communities," the two powerful black organizations said in a joint statement after a daylong meeting.

The deal by which the Inkatha Freedom Party will contest South Africa's mold-breaking multi-racial parliamentary elections next week offers that country a way out of civil war and a more promising start in democracy.Another way to put it is that Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the Zulu chief, leader of Inkatha and prime minister of the KwaZulu homeland, realized the bus was leaving the station and hopped on after everyone thought it too late.This will require amending ballot papers and other strenuous efforts to get Inkatha candidates on a ballot they were boycotting.

DURBAN, South Africa -- The African National Congress flexed its political muscle yesterday with a display of strength in the middle of the territory claimed by its biggest rival for the black vote.Drawn in part by Nelson Mandela, the ANC leader, and in part by promises of entertainment and traditional healers, about 60,000 people overflowed King's Park, a stadium that the weekend before had held a gathering of white South Africans drawn to a championship rugby game -- the closest thing this country has to the Super Bowl.