July 2001 Africa News Headlines

CAPE TOWN - An effective action plan to prevent and end conflicts within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was brought a step closer on Friday with the adoption of a draft mutual defence pact.

Defence ministers from twelve SADC countries approved the draft at the end of a two-day meeting in Maseru, Lesotho.

South African Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota told Sapa after the meeting that the pact was aimed at stabilising the region, and cultivating an atmosphere conducive to investment and long-term stability.

The pact would provide a mechanism to prevent conflict between SADC countries, as well as with other countries, and for SADC countries to act together against aggression by outsiders.

It would also allow for SADC intervention in major conflicts between signatories, and for intervention in intra-state conflicts which had the potential to affect the stability of the whole region.

Lekota, one of the prime instigators of the pact, expressed his satisfaction with the progress made during the Maseru meeting, and said the pact would also help end current conflicts in the region.

The draft pact would now be scrutinised more closely by individual SADC countries in an attempt to have it completed for final adoption at the next council of ministers summit in Blantyre, Malawi, next month, he said. - Nampa-Sapa

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