Six South African men walked into the British consulate in Durban last month and asked for sanctuary. The men-five Indians and a blackare outspoken opponents of apartheid, South Africa's system of racial separation, and had just received detention-without-trial orders from the Pretoria government. The Durban Six, as they became known, lived in a 24-ft. by 16-ft. office while British and South African officials exchanged impatient diplomatic notes. Negotiations soured when Pretoria refused to hand over four white South Africans due to stand trial in London this month on arms-smuggling charges.
Three of the Durban Six have since turned themselves in...