YouSaid · the spoken record

Thomas Motsoahae Thabane

lines on the record

109

first

1998-09-24

most recent

2019-09-24

sittings or episodes

6

sources

un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

1. “Furthermore, all political parties need to submit themselves to the discipline and responsibilities that are demanded of them as actors in the democratic system. This includes the acceptance of defeat in general elections. Otherwise, those politicians who deliberately undermine the democratic culture should be exposed and officially branded by the international community as criminals, as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has done with Savimbi in Angola. Since 1993, Lesotho has been embarked on a programme of entrenching democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The current crisis has amply demonstrated how difficult it is to make people whose only preoccupation is the achievement of personal political power participate in this process.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

2. “We have already made contacts with the World Bank for a more precise assessment of our needs in this regard, and once these are known we shall be making a more focused appeal. Above and beyond the assistance with physical reconstruction, it is quite clear that the type of assistance which the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and some bilateral donors were giving to reorient the minds of our army has not yet had a lasting impact. Lesotho has had a sad history of an army that was deliberately filled with supporters of one political party when that party was in power for over 20 years. As a consequence, our army has had great difficulty in submitting to the authority of a new master. Recent events have underscored the urgent need to overhaul the Lesotho army, as was done under international supervision in Haiti.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

3. “While these SADC troops were busy neutralizing the army mutiny and the virtual coup, the supporters of opposition parties embarked on a campaign of arson and looting in the central business district of the capital, Maseru, which later spread to other towns of the country. Although the full extent of the damage to business infrastructure is not yet known with certainty, preliminary estimates put it at above $200 million. For a small least developed country like Lesotho, such an amount is a heavy burden on an already fragile economy. The Government of Lesotho therefore appeals to the international community for assistance in rebuilding the infrastructure that has been so wantonly destroyed.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

4. “In an attempt to achieve this, the opposition parties perpetrated lawlessness, which resulted in an army mutiny, the forced and illegal dismissal of the command structure by junior officers, and open support by those junior officers for the opposition-led civil unrest in preparation for an illegal takeover of the Government. It was in this state of virtual coup d?état that the Lesotho Prime Minister appealed to the Presidents of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe for military assistance to restore law and order and to enforce discipline in the Lesotho army. The responsibility was shouldered by the SADC member States Botswana and South Africa on behalf of the entire SADC.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

5. “The Commission of Investigation, which came to be known as the Langa Commission after its Chairman, Justice Pius Langa of South Africa, found that, while there had been administrative irregularities, there had been no fraud and the elections could not be said not to represent the will of the electorate. But even in the absence of fraud, the opposition parties still insisted on the resignation of the Government, the dissolution of Parliament and the establishment by the King of a government of national unity in which all the major parties would be equally represented.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

6. “The Commission, a new institution in the history of Lesotho, was without previous experience. The elections were observed by 400 local and 150 international observers, including observers from the United Nations, all of whom declared them free and fair. Soon afterwards, however, three of the 12 opposition parties alleged that the Lesotho Congress for Democracy had won through fraud. Vice-President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa attempted to mediate in this dispute, and all the parties agreed to an audit of the 9 election results, conducted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in order to determine the existence or otherwise of fraud.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

7. “Nothing could be closer to the truth than the Secretary-General?s observation that “Where there is insufficient accountability of leaders, lack of transparency in regimes, inadequate checks and balances, non-adherence to the rule of law, absence of peaceful means to change or replace leadership, or lack of respect for human rights, political control becomes excessively important, and the stakes become dangerously high”. (A/52/871, para. 12) Our recent experience in Lesotho is that instability is likely to arise even when Governments are deeply conscious of the need to abide by those prescriptions, if other political players are not similarly committed to them. On 23 May 1998, a general election was held in Lesotho under the management of an Independent Electoral Commission established with the full cooperation of all political parties.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

8. “The list of issues that you provided was comprehensive, but I wish here to highlight only some of them — without passing judgment on their relative worth. The Secretary-General has submitted a report on causes of conflict in Africa at the request, last year, of the Security Council. It is an excellent report, for which the Secretary-General should be commended. The recent events in Lesotho, to a large measure, fit in with the Secretary-General?s diagnosis.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)

9. “I should like, Mr. President, to extend to you our very warm congratulations on your election to lead the business of the General Assembly at its fifty-third session. Your election bears testimony to the very high esteem in which we hold you and your country. You can count on our unstinting support and cooperation during the year that lies ahead. Through you, Sir, permit me also to salute your very worthy predecessor, Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko, the former Foreign Minister of Ukraine, for the illustrious manner in which he led the General Assembly at its fifty-second session. In your address at the opening of this session, Mr. President, you challenged us to focus our attention on the major issues of our time.”

   1998-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 53 (1998)