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dam-l Lesotho war/LS
Note the reference to Katse Dam (misspelled) at the bottom of this story.
Smoldering Lesotho streets calm
South Africans 'shoot
to kill' in tense Maseru
African Defense Force troops
sweep the streets of Maseru on
Thursday, looking for any
remnants of the mob which
earlier looted, burned and
wrecked offices and shops.
REUTERS
MASERU, Lesotho, Sept. 24 - A measure of calm returned
to the
burned-out capital of Lesotho on Thursday as South
African and
Botswana troops maintained a close watch on the lawless
streets.
Bands of looters still roamed the streets, but in
smaller numbers
then on Wednesday, and the sound of gunfire was only
sporadically heard.
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Mangosuthu Buthelezi,
Acting South African
President, explains the
goal of South Africa's
intervention in Lesotho.
A PALL OF smoke still hung over the
city, which was engulfed by
chaos on Tuesday when Pretoria poured
troops into the tiny, mountainous
kingdom at the request of Prime Minister
Pakalitha Mosisili to quell what
he called an army mutiny.
South African armored personnel
carriers were stationed around
Maseru's small central business area and
journalists saw at least six
Botswana armored vehicles streaming across
the border towards Maseru
early on Thursday.
At least 66 have been killed in the
fighting, with the South African
army counting eight dead - the first
soldiers killed on active duty since
Nelson Mandela became the country's first
black president following
democratic elections in 1994.
'SHOOT TO KILL'
South African military officials in
Pretoria on Wednesday warned in a
statement that their men would now use
more firepower to suppress the
Lesotho mutineers.
"Where the peace forces started out
by being circumspect in clashes,
they will now shoot to kill," a military
spokesman told the South African
Press Association.
Smoke rises in downtown Maseru
after the city center was rocked
by heavy fighting and a wave of
looting and burning of
government buildings on
Wednesday.
Fleeing Lesotho soldiers have taken
to the hills that surround Maseru
and continue to fire on forces of the
South African/Botswanan operation,
which is being conducted in the name of
the Southern African
Development Community (SADC).
A television crew heard gunfire
exchanged near the main Lesotho
Defense Force barracks which South African
soldiers were said to have
taken on Wednesday.
Publicly endorsing his country's
intervention in the enclave, Mandela
told reporters in the United States that
58 Lesotho soldiers had been killed
in the fight to put down the widening
revolt by members of the Lesotho
army.
Mandela, on a farewell trip to
visit President Bill Clinton, said
intervention was necessary to end "chaos
and anarchy."
FIERCE FIGHTING
But the operation has turned a
smoldering conflict, which had claimed
five lives in seven weeks, into an urban
war pitting government supporters
against soldiers and political parties
demanding that Mosisili and his
cabinet step down.
Mandela said the South African
soldiers who died were killed while
trying to explain to the Basotho people
that "we have not come here to
fight, we have come here to ensure the
chaos and anarchy that is happening
in this country is stopped."
'These armies must get
out now. We will sort
this thing out ourselves.
This whole exercise is
bungled, it is botched.'
- VINCENT MALEBO
Opposition leader
More than a thousand foreign
nationals have fled Maseru, tucked high
up in the lush folds of the Drakensburg
mountains, since the anarchy
began, diplomats said.
Hundreds of traders, mostly Chinese
and Indian, as well as Europeans
were lined up at the border on Thursday
desperate to reach the safety of
South Africa. The British and American
embassies have evacuated
non-essential staff.
King Letsie's brother, Prince
Seeiso, told South African television the
Lesotho economy had suffered a severe
setback from the "wanton" looting
and destruction of property of the past 36
hours.
South African-owned shops bore the
brunt of the rampage as Lesotho
does not have its own major retailers.
Companies from its giant neighbor
are responsible for virtually all supplies
of fresh food and produce,
furniture and clothing.
UNTIL THE END
South African Defense Minister Joe
Modise said the SADC force had
met unexpectedly stiffer resistance but
underlined that it would stay there
until the job was done.
"We will be there for as long as
required for the SADC forces to
restore law and order. When law and order
has been restored the
government will take over," he told a news
conference in Cape Town.
But in Maseru, there was no sign of
support for the foreign incursion
with businessmen complaining bitterly that
the South African and
Botswana troops had done nothing to stop
the wave of lawlessness.
"As long as these two armies stay
here, the political impasse will
remain and be compounded," said Vincent
Malebo, chairman of an alliance
of opposition parties which has been
behind a low-level rebellion trying to
press the Maseru government to annul a
disputed general election.
"These armies must get out now.
...We will sort this thing out
ourselves. This whole exercise is bungled,
it is botched. They must get out
and leave us alone," he told a news conference.
Malebo, who is also leader of the
opposition Marematlou Party,
alleged that South African soldiers had
burnt the bodies of Lesotho soldiers
killed in fierce fighting for control of
the Khetsi Dam, a joint venture
between the two countries.
South African authorities were
unavailable for comment on the
charges, which could not be independently
verified.
© 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights
reserved. Republication or
redistribution of Reuters content is
expressly prohibited without the prior
written consent of Reuters.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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