HUGE FINNISH AID DEAL
FINNISH President Maarti Ahtisaari signed a R50 million aid and development co-operation agreement with President Nelson Mandela at Tuynhuys today. Ahtisaari, who lavished praise on Mandela for his role as an African peace broker, is known to South Africans as the UN mediator who overaw the transition to independence of Namibia. Mandela awarded Ahtisaari with South Africa’s highest honour, the Order of Good Hope, and was in turn awarded Finland’s highest honour, the Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose of Finland.
MALI ELECTIONS
MALI’S president Alpha Oumar Konare has won more than 85% of the vote from Sunday’s national election — but most of his key opponents boycotted the poll. Konare will serve a second five year term. Opposition parties said the low voter turnout – 27% – was a victory for the boycotters, and that they would not recognise the legitimacy of a president elected in the “May 11 electoral masquerade”.
NO LESOTHO BAIL
LESOTHO director of public prosecutions Sipho Mhluli today opposed bail for thirty policemen facing trial on sedition charges, on the grounds that there is no such thing as bail in the Lesotho constitution. The policemen were involved in a nationwide police mutiny which brought the country to a standstill in February until ended by armed intervention from the military.