| Publication |
2007.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The 1998 military intervention in Lesotho by South Africa and Botswana was shrouded in controversy. While South African officials claimed that the intervention was a Southern African Development Community (SADC) humanitarian peacekeeping mission to rescue Lesotho from a coup, the intervention appears to have been inconsistent with the UN Charter and with the SADC Treaty. Indeed, SADC had no role in legitimating this intervention because proposals relevant to coups had not been ratified by the SADC Summit. It would appear that the motivation for this intervention, at least on the part of South Africa, was to secure strategic resources, mainly water. National interest explains the intervention, rather than the rescue of a captive state as South Africa claimed.
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