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Lesotho - Foreign Relations

Lesotho is not a country in a state of peace and harmony, thrown into chaos as a result of the South African-led military intervention. The politics of post-independence Lesotho was - and still is - characterised by ongoing struggles between the dominating influence of the military, the monarchy, and political parties, against the background of economic impoverishment and dependence on South Africa. Since 1970 Lesotho has suffered a number of unconstitutional political developments including coups d'etat. Developments following the 1998 elections therefore must be seen and interpreted against this background.

Lesotho's geographic location makes it extremely vulnerable to political and economic developments in South Africa. It is a member of many regional economic organizations including the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). Lesotho also is active in the United Nations, the African Union, the Nonaligned Movement, the Commonwealth, and many other international organizations. In addition to the United States, South Africa, China, Libya, Ireland, and the European Union all currently maintain resident diplomatic missions in Lesotho. The United Nations is represented by a resident mission as well, including UNDP, UNICEF, WHO, FAO, WFP, and UNAIDS.

Lesotho has historically maintained generally close ties with the United States, European Union member states, and other Western countries. Although Lesotho decided in 1990 to break relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) and reestablish relations with Taiwan, in 1993 the nation restored ties with the PRC. Lesotho also recognizes Palestine as a state, was a strong public supporter of the end of apartheid in South Africa, and granted a number of South African refugees political asylum during the apartheid era.

Until the 1960s, several South African governments pressed for the incorporation of Lesotho, then a British protectorate, into the Union of South Africa. As a landlocked country completely surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho depended heavily on South Africa for its economic well-being. After Lesotho became independent in October 1966, South Africa played a major role in the country's internal affairs — for example, by supporting the new government led by Chief Leabua Jonathan.

Lesotho’s central location within South Africa gives the country unimpeded access to the range of South Africa’s expertise, advanced technology, developed infrastructures, relatively sophisticated intermediate inputs and goods markets, capital and financial markets, and investment resources. There are, therefore, numerous opportunities for integrating Lesotho into the main economic centers of South Africa.

Tensions between the two countries rose in the 1970s because of Lesotho's criticism of South Africa at the UN and at the OAU, its support for the ANC, its provision of safe haven to antiapartheid fighters such as MK, and its close ties to a number of socialist countries. Relations became severely strained in April 1983, when the Jonathan government announced that Lesotho was at war with South Africa, and again in 1984, when Lesotho refused to sign a nonaggression pact with South Africa. In response, South Africa impounded shipments of arms to Lesotho, threatened economic sanctions, and suspended talks concerning the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (a thirty-year cooperative engineering venture that would supply water to South Africa and provide electric power and financial compensation to Lesotho). Tensions eased in 1984, as some ANC forces withdrew from Lesotho, but in 1985 new tensions prompted Pretoria to step up security measures along the border between the two countries.

The Basotho National Party (BNP) maintained control of the state by exploiting divisions within the opposition BCP and, where necessary, with force. Having fled the country, opposition leaders established the Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA) to contest the BNP’s control. But the BNP government was ousted in a military coup in 1986 that was engineered by the apartheid government in neighboring South Africa.

In early 1986, South Africa backed a military coup in Maseru, bringing into power a government more sympathetic to Pretoria's security interests. Lesotho expelled several ANC members and technicians from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), whom Pretoria considered a menace, and relations between the two nations improved. Work on the Highlands Water Project resumed, and in 1987 they established a joint trade mission. Relations continued to improve after that, and the countries established full diplomatic ties in May 1992. Pretoria recognized the outcome of Lesotho's March 1993 elections, the first in twenty-two years.

South African involvement should be understood in the regional context. It became part of a SADC initiative in 1994 which was set up to reverse the constitutional coup carried out by Letsie III, the BNP and sections of the military. In January 1994, Lesotho's democratically elected civilian government sought South African assistance in quelling an army mutiny over pay and conditions of service in the Lesotho Defence Forces. Pretoria refused to intervene directly, but threatened to seal off Lesotho's borders, which would have blocked vital commercial transportation to and from Maseru. De Klerk and Mandela, together with the presidents of Zimbabwe and Botswana, urged both sides to negotiate an end to the crisis, a move that represented the likely pattern of postapartheid diplomacy in southern Africa. Since then, it kept a close eye on developments in Lesotho.

When opposition protests to the outcome of the 1998 elections became disruptive, senior South African government leaders (Mbeki, Nzo and Modise) intervened on behalf of the SADC troika (South Africa, Zimbabwe and Botswana) and secured agreement from Lesotho's ruling LCD and the main opposition to hand over the election dispute to the adjudication of SADC and Lesotho's IEC.

Justice Pius Langa from South Africa's constitutional court was then appointed to lead the commission of investigation into alleged election fraud. Unfortunately, for reasons that are still unclear, the release of the commission's report was delayed, which allowed opposition players in Lesotho to activate sinister agendas which involved the military. Between late August and September 17, when the report was finally handed over, the stage was set for a mutiny among soldiers of the Lesotho Defence Force, and despite Modise's repeated interventions on the ground, the situation in Lesotho rapidly descended into chaos.

On 22 September 1998, a SADC military task force, consisting of soldiers from South Africa and Botswana, entered Lesotho ostensibly to quell a "coup d'etat in the making" and to restore law and order in the country. The SADC military intervention (called operation Boleas) failed to prevent and control the orgy of looting and destruction of property in central Maseru. The operation also suffered from a serious lack of accurate intelligence regarding the movement and capability of the armed rebels. This resulted in a number of casualties. The Botswana and South African contingents also failed to coordinate their movements to maximum effect. This could have prevented some of the destruction that followed the intervention.