MONDAY, 8.00AM:
PRESIDENT NELSON Mandela flies to Egypt today, on the first leg of a north African tour that includes Libya. At a banquet on Friday for former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, Mandela hit at the US, accusing it of arrogance for dictating “where we should go or who our friends should be”.
He also defended his right to visit Libya, and to acknowledge the anti-apartheid role played by Libya in the struggle against “one of the most brutal systems in the world.” Mandela also suggested that the US was motivated by racism: “Notwithstanding the changes in the world, the contempt for blacks in still deep-seated. But I am master of my own fate.”
Mandela is expected to travel to Libya by road on Wednesday, to avoid breaking the United Nations air embargo on Libya. His one-day mission in Libya is an attempt to broker an agreement over the Lockerbie air bombing, and to bring the results to the Commonwealth summit in Scotland on Thursday.
Libyan exiles have written open letters to Mandela, urging him not to lend his credibility to a country notorious for its intolerance of dissent: ‘Don’t visit our homeland,’ Libyan exiles urge.