Word: botha
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...moment guaranteed high political drama, and the setting did it full justice. On a remote strip of bush along the border between their two countries, with the Lebombo mountains as a backdrop and hippos snorting in the nearby Nkomati River, Prime Minister P.W. Botha of apartheid South Africa and President Samora Machel of black-ruled, Marxist Mozambique last week sat down together for the first time and faced something other than the prospect of killing. As a crowd of 1,000, including representatives of black African states, watched from the tiers of a hastily constructed grandstand near the border town...
...both sides and forbidding the support of guerrilla groups hostile to either government, the accord may mark the end of nearly a decade of increasing enmity between the two neighboring countries, each of which has accused the other of encouraging attacks by insurgent groups. Moreover, as Machel and Botha shook hands, there were indications that after decades of ruinous skirmishing between white-ruled South Africa and black nations close by, winds of peace were sweeping through the rest of the region as well...
...part, the new confidence seems to stem from victories by Prime Minister Botha over hardliners, including a constitutional reform that will give a measure of legislative power to Indians and mixed-race citizens. South Africa, says Ambassador to Washington Brand Fourie, may be embarking on "a new era of realism...
After months of groundwork, negotiations came to a head last November. Following a meeting with Machel in the Mozambique capital of Maputo, Crocker's deputy, Frank Wisner, flew to South Africa with a message for Foreign Minister Roelof ("Pik") Botha: the time was ripe for bilateral talks with Mozambique. The discussions set in motion the exchange that led to last week's formal accord...
Then, on Dec. 6, Crocker met with Pik Botha in a Rome hotel room, this time to discuss Angola and Namibia. In a vigorous all-day session, Crocker convinced the South African leader that a pullout of his country's forces in Angola could lead to a ceasefire, paving the way for a Namibian settlement. Meanwhile, in meetings on the Cape Verde Islands, Wisner won agreement from Angola that in return it would restrain further SWAPO attacks. As the disengagement went into effect in February, a team of U.S. observers was sent to the Namibian capital of Windhoek...