Dissident soldiers seize Lesotho cabinet ministers

MASERU, Lesotho (Reuter): Dissident soldiers placed Lesotho's deputy prime minister under house arrest yesterday and seized four other ministers, a government spokesman said.

"We don't know what's happening," the spokesman told Reuters. No demands had been made.

The capital Maseru, which was rocked by fighting between army factions in January, was quiet and there was no major troop presence or sign of troop movements.

The spokesman said soldiers from the main Makonyane barracks were holding Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Selometsi Baholo at his home on the city outskirts.

He said the soldiers had seized Trade Minister Shakhane Robong Mokhehle, Natural Resources Minister Monyane Moleleki, Education Minister Bethuel Pakalitha Nosisili and Justice Minister Kelebone Albert Maope and taken them to the barracks.

The spokesman said there was no indication that Baholo or a bodyguard had been shot when they were arrested despite unconfirmed rumors to that effect in the small mountain kingdom of 1.8 million people which is surrounded by South Africa.

Western diplomats said the five arrested were ministers who could be considered anti-military in the cabinet. The trade minister is Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle's younger brother.

In Pretoria, South African Foreign Minister Pik Botha said Mokhehle had "requested immediate South African mediation with the Lesotho Defense Force".

Fighting between about 600 soldiers from the Makonyane barracks and about 120 elite troops from a reconnaissance group at a support barracks on the southwestern edge of the city in January prompted international mediation to end that crisis.

Some diplomats said there had been reports of continued dissatisfaction in the army over pay and conditions.

Diplomats in Maseru said there had been sporadic gunfire yesterday morning at the support barracks. It had died away and there was no indication who was responsible or if there were casualties.

The Lesotho spokesman said soldiers in the latest crisis supported the opposition Basotho National Party, which was heavily defeated by Mokhehle's Basotholand Congress Party in the country's first democratic elections in two decades in March 1993.

Diplomats said the prime minister had briefed the diplomatic corps on the latest crisis to rock Lesotho.

Mokhehle told parliament last week the government intended to form a committee of inquiry into the January fighting.

Botha said Defense Minister Kobie Coetsee had instructed senior members of the South African Defense Force (SADF) to communicate with the Lesotho Defense Force "in an attempt to calm the situation and to find a solution to the present crisis".

Botha said in a statement he had also contacted Zimbabwean Foreign Minister Nathan Shamuyarira. Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa help to mediate in the previous crisis.