Word: lesotho
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...sooner had cheering crowds welcomed Pope John Paul II to tiny Lesotho (pop. 1.6 million) last week than the cool night air erupted in explosions and flashes of light. But these were not fireworks welcoming the Pontiff. Blocks from the route the Pope's motorcade had taken through Maseru, the capital, South African commandos were storming a hijacked bus on which a band of antigovernment Lesotho guerrillas had been holding 71 Catholic pilgrims for 29 hours. When the gunfire ended, three of the four rebels lay dead. So did a 14-year-old girl, one of 31 children on board...
...tragedy came amid a week of turmoil -- and a few gestures of amity -- in strife-prone southern Africa, a region of guerrilla conflicts and racial hostilities. John Paul had arrived in Lesotho via a circuitous route. Bad weather forced his chartered Air Zimbabwe jet to veer from Maseru and land at Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg. The unscheduled stop was a public relations windfall for South Africa, which had been pointedly excluded from the Pope's five-nation tour. While John Paul did not kiss the ground at the airport, as is his custom on first visiting a country...
...Papal Visit Office, Sister Rita Brassard, said that the bus had come from the town of Quacha's Nek, which is in a remote area in the south of Lesotho, a mountain nation completely surrounded by South Africa...
...pope was in Botswana yesterday and was expected in Lesotho today as part of a five-nation tour of southern Africa...
...Lesotho, a nation of about 1.6 million people about the size of Maryland, is officially a constitutional monarchy but is ruled by a six-man military council in consultation with King Moshoeshoe...