17-10-2008, 09:41 AM
David Guyatt Wrote:Paul, this is most intriguing stuff from Mr Heseldine of the FCO.
Did he indicate what impact the deaths of all those SWAPO soldiers might have had - as 308 votes doesn't seem sufficient to tip the balance in an election? Perhaps there was a deeper angle to this?
But really very interesting angle on PanAm 103...
Forgive the episodic nature of my explanation, but my back's "gone," and I'm having trouble sitting (standing, or anything else for that matter). First up, a little more on America's Finnish asset's performance in Namibia:
Editorial, “Hope lies bleeding,” The Guardian, 14 September 1989:
Quote:It has taken the murder of SWAPO’s leading white official in Namibia, hardly a day before the return of President Sam Nujoma, to focus attention on the gloomy prospects now unfolding there for free elections in November….The UN’s own officials in Namibia have also consistently failed to rise to the urgency of the situation. Mr Martti Ahtisaari remained in charge because he had been landed with the job ten years before. He and his colleagues have chosen a low-key role, opting for quiet diplomacy with Pretoria rather than publicly denouncing the pattern of violence inspired by pro-South African forces.
I'll return later when the pain-killer's have kicked in!