Thatcher may visit Namibia

Press, 1 April 1989, Page 11

Thatcher may visit Namibia

NZPA-Reuter

Blantyre, Malawi

The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, pressed ahead with her southern African peace drive yesterday amid widespread expectations that she will make a “surprise” visit to Namibia’s independence celebrations.

The South African Foreign Minister, Pik Botha, whose Government has controlled Namibia for 70 years, said Mrs Thatcher would extend her six-day tour and would be flying to Windhoek today.

Mr Botha said Pretoria had been consulted about the proposed visit to the territory and had reacted positively. Earlier, at a press conference before leaving Zimbabwe for Malawi, Mrs Thatcher declined to comment on speculation that she would visit Namibia. Officials in London also declined to confirm that the trip would go ahead. Namibia will begin its countdown to United Nations-supervised elections and independence today. Britain is opening a diplomatic mission in Windhoek.

Mrs Thatcher’s tour of Malawi willl continue today with a first-hand look at the human cost of Mozambique’s civil war when she visits a refugee camp close to the Malawi-Mozambique border. The camp is one of many in the landlocked country that are home to 650,000 Mozambicans who have fled a decade of slaughter and strife in their homeland. Mrs Thatcher was met on arrival by President Kamuzu Banda, a loyal ally of Britain and leader of Malawi since independence from the British crown 25 years ago.

President Banda, the only black African leader to maintain diplomatic ties with South Africa, will hold two hours of talks with Mrs Thatcher at his modernistic Sanjika palace, outside Blantyre, after she has visited the refugee camp. He will also host a state banquet

in her honour. The theme of Mrs Thatcher’s trip has been that southern Africa is at a turning point, with unique opportunities for peace and stability brought about by the Namibian independence process and the Cuban troop withdrawal from neighbouring Angola.