Winnie Mandela on Friday condemned ``necklacing'' and said a statement she made on South African militants' practice of killing with burning tires had been reported out of context. The wife of African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela made the comment in a morning interview with Phil Donahue, whose syndicated talk show was to air in some areas of the country Friday and others on Monday. Mrs. Mandela later had lunch with the U.N. African Mothers' Association, and in the afternoon spoke at a Brooklyn church symposium of about 200 women active in civic and religious organizations. They included Joyce Dinkins, the mayor's wife; Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger; Comptroller Elizabeth Holtzman; Hazel Dukes, head of the local NAACP; Betty Shabazz, Malcolm X's widow; and ``Mother'' Clara Hale, founder of a Harlem home for babies sick from crack, AIDS and other maladies. Mrs. Mandela later attended a tribute at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where she listened to Sweet Honey in the Rock, an acapella group known for its songs calling for black liberation. In brief remarks, Mrs. Mandela said the ANC would go to war if negotiations to end apartheid stall. ``If talks fall apart and they very well might, we know you will be there to take up arms with us,'' Mrs. Mandela told the sold-out crowd of 2,000. Much of the audience jumped out of their seats with shouts of support for her statement. Speaking at the earlier church meeting, Mrs. Mandela described the social problems encumbering blacks in South Africa, including a high infant mortality rate, inadequate health care and schools. ``Poverty and disease are the everyday companions of our people,'' she said. ``This is our legacy, a legacy of apartheid.'' ``In South Africa, we believe that if the women were in the forefront, we would have long won our freedom,'' she said, winning a roar of appreciation from the 200 women. In her comments on the Donahue program, Mrs. Mandela condemned ``necklacing'' _ killing government collaborators by putting a gasoline-soaked burning tire around his neck _ as ``brutal and barbaric.'' The practice has been employed by some militants in confrontations between rival groups in South Africa's black shantytowns. Mrs. Mandela was quoted as telling a rally in South Africa in 1986: ``With our boxes of matches and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country.'' She reiterated Friday her claim that the comment was quoted out of context. ``Our children have been so oppressed and met up with such violence from the government that they have resorted to that method of eliminating their enemies,'' she said. ``That was not the form or method approved by the ANC. No sane person would ever approve of that.''
