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dam-l Southern Africa violence
>
>
>Electronic Mail & Guardian 13 August, 1998
>Lesotho troops fire
> at protesters
>
> OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Wednesday 4.30pm.
>
> LESOTHO army troops fired stun grenades at several
> hundered protesters outside King Letsie III's palace in
> Maseru on Wednesday afternoon after protestors refused to
> obey an army order to disperse. Earlier on Wednesday morning
> troops surrounded the palace after the order, issued on
> Tuesday night by army chief Lieutenant-Colonel Makhula
> Motakeng, was largely ignored. "Early on Wednesday morning
> the army began surrounding the Royal Palace. Another tank,
> inside the palace, is facing the gate in the direction of
> the crowd," Basotho National Party official Bareng
> Sekhonyana said. He added that there are a number of issues
> that need to be resolved before the protesters will
> disperse. Protesters have for days surrounded the palace,
> demanding the monarch overturn the results of the May
> general election, which opposition parties claim was rigged
> in favour of the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy. *
> Meanwhile, a Lesotho government official who allegedly tried
> to flee Maseru was beaten and stoned to death on Tuesday by
> a crowd blocking the road to the South African border.
> Spokesperson for the country's opposition parties Monica
> Mopeli said that witnesses said the man, driving a car
> without number plates, drove straight towards the group and
> opened fire on them, wounding three people. The crowd set on
> the vehicle, smashing its windows, and the unidentified man
> was beaten and stoned to death.
>
> ELECTRONIC MAIL&GUARDIAN
> Johannesburg, South Africa. August 11,
> 1998
>
>
> Unita uses terror
> to force new deal
>
> Unita has been accused of a string of atrocities in its
> attempts to force a renegotiation of the peace deal
> that it has so far refused to honour. CHRIS GORDON
> reports
>
>
> UNITA is continuing to recapture small areas in
> the Angolan countryside on a daily basis, sowing
> terror to reach their objectives.
>
> Diplomats in Luanda believe Unita leader Jonas Savimbi
> now wants the Lusaka protocols renegotiated, with a
> better deal for Unita. Savimbi described the protocols
> as being the destruction of Unita. They should have
> led, on Unita's side, to complete disarmament and
> transition into a political party. Savimbi's inability
> to take the final steps of this process provoked the
> present crisis in Angola.
>
> Observers here suggest that Unita is attacking in order
> to be able to renegotiate the protocols from a position
> of strength. The atrocity at Bula, where 88 garimpeiros
> (farmworkers) were burned alive, was the worst of many
> such attacks on the unarmed population. The attack was
> carried out by 440 heavily armed men who robbed the
> population of about 700 mainly Zairean diamond miners,
> money, food and equipment.
>
> Monua, the United Nations's monitoring force in Angola,
> could not verify that it was Unita who attacked since
> many of the killers wore civilian clothes. Monua said
> that attributing the attack to Unita is hostile
> propaganda. Survivors of the massacre and workers in
> the region say they believe it was a Unita attack, in
> revenge for being forced out a few weeks earlier.
>
> More than 105 000 newly displaced
> people are fleeing either Unita attacks
> or the threat of them. Valerie Julliand,
> deputy director of the UN's Unit for the
> Co-ordination of Humanitarian
> Assistance (Uncah) told the Mail &
> Guardian that the situation in the
> interior has deteriorated rapidly since
> May, when Unita went on the offensive.
>
> Uncah is expecting the number of
> people displaced by Unita attacks to
> reach 200 000 and aid agencies are
> finding it more difficult to reach them.
> Aid workers have been pulled back
> into provincial capitals as ambushes,
> landmines and attacks on agency
> teamsites by Unita have made the
> countryside unsafe . The reduction of
> Monua means that only 500 armed escorts for food
> convoys are available - and conditions on the ground
> are getting more dangerous.
>
> For the aid agencies, responding to a new humanitarian
> crisis when they had moved on to the resettlement of
> those displaced by the previous war is difficult. Donor
> funding was given for development projects, not
> emergency aid.
>
> While there is enough food, there is a critical
> shortage of other items: no water purification tablets,
> not enough buckets and cooking kits. If the political
> situation doesn't improve in the next few months, it
> will mean a humanitarian disaster, Julliand believes.
>
> The visit of UN special envoy Lahkdar Brahimi to Angola
> has resulted in Unita agreeing to send their
> representative, Isias Samakuva, back to Luanda for
> further talks on the hand-over of Unita's headquarters
> region, and the towns of Bailondo and Andulo.
>
> Lahkdar met President José Eduardo dos Santos and
> Savimbi, as well as Monua and the representatives of
> the monitoring nations, the United States, Russia and
> Portugal. The outcome has been an apparent step back
> from the brink, although this may only have the effect
> of buying more time for Savimbi. --
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>Steve Rothert
>International Rivers Network
>Okavango Liaison Group
>Plot 253 Moremi Road
>PO Box 2723
>Gaborone, Botswana
>Tel: 267-353-337, Fax: 267-359-337
>Email: stever@info.bw
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