Mandela Confounds Rightists, Asks Amnesty for White Hunger Strikers : South Africa: The ANC leader will appeal the case of the three jailed protesters to President De Klerk.

PRETORIA, South Africa —  Nelson Mandela, surprising and confounding right-wing extremists, went to the bedside of three jailed white hunger strikers on Monday and promised to personally urge President Frederik W. de Klerk to grant them amnesty.

Mandela, African National Congress president, said he is convinced that the hunger strikers, all members of the militant Order of Boer People, had “valuable information” about government security force actions against anti-apartheid activists. They would reveal the secrets if freed.

“We think it is proper if we are going to have a lasting (political) settlement in South Africa that these issues must now be exposed,” Mandela said after brief visits with the men, who are being held under guard at a Pretoria hospital.

The captives, awaiting trial on charges of murder and attempted murder, contend that they are political prisoners and should be indemnified from prosecution and released--like the hundreds of ANC-aligned prisoners whom De Klerk has freed.

But De Klerk, after consulting his Cabinet last week, flatly refused to free the men or grant them immunity and now risks a bloody confrontation with militant whites if one of the prisoners dies. Only last month, a clash between police and right-wing demonstrators trying to break up a De Klerk speech left three whites dead.

Mandela’s decision to side with the often-racist right wing on this issue has earned him some goodwill among whites and painted De Klerk into a corner. Mandela contends that De Klerk is afraid to grant the prisoners immunity because of what they might tell about their former jobs in the government’s intelligence service.

The three men are charged in connection with two bomb blasts last year. One of the bombs, planted at a downtown Pretoria taxi rank, injured more than a dozen blacks. The second bomb was hidden in a computer that was sent for repairs to a company in Durban that had done business with the ANC. It exploded, killing a black computer technician.

The men have refused offers of bail and their trial is set to begin next month.

De Klerk’s conservative opponents, estimated to account for about one in four white voters in the country, want a separate white state for Afrikaners, descendants of South Africa’s original settlers. They believe that the president has sold out his fellow whites and is leading the country toward black domination.

Conservative leaders criticize De Klerk for bending over backward to accommodate the ANC by, among other things, releasing many ANC prisoners after they went on hunger strikes earlier this year. Political analysts fear that the death of one of the white hunger strikers could touch off even more right-wing violence.

Mandela’s visit, which came at the invitation of the prisoners’ lawyer, left the right-wing sharply divided. The deputy leader of the Order of Boer People resigned his post because of the invitation, saying that “true right-wing freedom fighters see Mandela as part of the enemy.”

Mandela said he and his ANC delegation met and “we exchanged pleasantries with” several right-wing leaders during the hospital visit, which followed a visit to ANC activists who also remain jailed. He said he would urge De Klerk at a meeting scheduled for this morning to free the right-wing prisoners as well as the ANC prisoners.

Nic Strydom, leader of the Order of Boer People, said although he and Mandela “are two worlds apart politically, I have appreciation for the interest he has shown in these people.”

Wim Cornelius, the prisoners’ lawyer, described the Mandela visit as “subdued and friendly” and said it bodes well for the future of the country.

Cornelius said Henry Martin, a 49-year-old British citizen in the ninth week of his hunger strike, clasped both of Mandela’s hands and thanked him for the “biggest humanitarian action” since the strike began. Then Martin had to be given oxygen, the lawyer said.

“This is the first time we’ve had solidarity between right- and left-wing groups on a specific issue,” Cornelius said.

Associates and family members of the three hunger strikers say the men are on the verge of death, and prisons officials acknowledge the men are in failing health. Adrian Maritz has refused food for eight weeks and Lood van Schalkwyk for six weeks.

The men have expressed “their willingness and interest in participating in future constitutional talks” with the government, the ANC and other major parties in South Africa, according to their lawyer.

Cornelius and leaders of the Order of Boer People declined to say what the prisoners might be able to reveal about covert government operations against anti-apartheid activists. Mandela also refused to say what the ANC knows, if anything, about the men’s activities, adding only that “I have no reason to doubt that they have the information.”

The government’s Justice Ministry said in a statement Monday that the men could make their allegations during their upcoming trial and have them tested in court without presidential indemnity.