OWN CORRESPONDENT, Maseru | Monday 9.30pm.
LESOTHO’S Prime Minister has been accused by opposition parties of victimising civil servants after claims that over 30 alleged mutineers would be court-martialled instead of receiving a general amnesty as demanded.
The 11 opposition parties, in a letter to South African Safety and Security Minister Sydney Mufamadi, said that the threat of courts martial violated the spirit of the agreement reached at Southern African Development Community-led talks to resolve Lesotho’s political crisis. The opposition said the claims had been made by lawyers representing soldiers detained for mutinous actions during the violence in September.
However, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili denied ever making such an announcement. “I spent the whole day in parliament today… and I only contributed in a debate on a bill which aims to establish an Interim Political Authority to prepare for fresh elections in our country,” he told reporters.
Earlier Mosisili told the National Assembly in Maseru that he was not ashamed of having requested SADC assistance to quell the violence in the country at the time.
Speaking during debate on the second reading of the interim Authority Bill to establish an authority to prepare for new elections, the prime minister said unlawful activities by the opposition included the forceful closure of state-controlled Radio Lesotho, the hijacking of government vehicles and their impounding at the royal palace, the hold-up of public servants with firearms and their removal from government offices.
The prime minister said Lesotho’s armed forces had failed to maintain law and order and it was therefore his duty as minister responsible for security to invite the SADC to intervene militarily to help restore law and order.