Word: botswana
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...Botswana also remains an active member of the "frontline" African states that have been pressing for a black nationalist government in Rhodesia, and it allows the presence of several Rhodesian refugee camps on its territory. But it has refused to permit guerrilla movements to establish military bases there, lest this provoke Rhodesian government attack, and it does the best it can to send intruding guerrillas back across the Zambian and Rhodesian borders...
...attempts at neutrality have worked reasonably well, but at quite a price. The growing warfare has caused Botswana to create its own 2,000-man defense force; the $25 million start-up cost is a heavy burden for a nation whose total population is a mere 780,000. Last year, in the most serious incident to date, a band of Rhodesian government commandos opened fire on a Botswana army convoy and killed 15 recruits; they were the first Botswanan soldiers ever to die in an African war. The incident set off a wave of anger throughout the country. Last month...
...Rhodesian attacks were not bad enough, Botswana is also vulnerable to raids by South African security forces against any South African guerrillas who might be passing through Botswanan territory. Summing up this welter of problems, a ranking Botswanan official told TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief William McWhirter: "Our future depends on whether sanity prevails in the region. If it doesn't, we may soon be in a position where all the parties say, 'He who is not with us is against...
...leading Botswana through this diplomatic minefield is Sir Seretse Khama, 57, the country's first and only President and the grandson of Khama the Great, one of the tribal chieftains who sought neutrality under Queen Victoria's protection a century ago. Sir Seretse suffers from diabetes and a weak heart, but these ailments have not prevented him from giving Botswana steady leadership. Says a friend: "Khama has been weak from the day he was born, but he always seems strong when we need...
Despite the tension on its borders, Botswana has remained markedly free of both tribal and racial strife. Khama, who was once banned from his homeland after his marriage in 1948 to a white Englishwoman, Ruth Williams, a former London secretary, has had much to do with maintaining this harmonious atmosphere...