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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The challenges of the South African military intervention in Lesotho after the 1998 elections |
Author: | Makoa, Francis K. |
Year: | 1999 |
Periodical: | Lesotho Social Sciences Review (ISSN 1028-0790) |
Volume: | 5 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | June |
Pages: | 83-109 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Lesotho South Africa Southern Africa |
Subjects: | military intervention politics Political crisis Conflict management South Africa. National Defence Force Intervention (International law) elections |
Abstract: | On 22 September 1998 South Africa intervened militarily in Lesotho's elections dispute, brutally ending a sit-in protest staged by the country's main oppositon parties. The intervention took place in response to a request made by Lesotho's Prime Minister Mosisili. This paper assesses South Africa's argument that it intervened in Lesotho to restore democracy, bringing into focus the consequences of this intervention and the challenges that it poses for the Pretoria regime. It rejects at the outset South Africa's claim that the Mosisili government was an innocent victim of what have been variously dubbed anti-democratic forces. Nor does in uncritically accept what many analysts present as explanations for Lesotho's recurrent crisis. It argues the contrary, that is, that Mosisili's regime fanned the crisis by trivializing - later with South Africa's approval and encouragement - the legitimate complaints of the kingdom's opposition political parties. Ref., sum. |