Maseru - The first government rally since intervention forces entered Lesotho last month ended in violence yesterday when a man was beaten to death and a member of the crowd was shot in the leg.
Police Commissioner Bolutu Makoaba said a group of men had been in the process of "setting up a bomb" at the rally, called by the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), when they were attacked by members of the crowd. One man was beaten to death and four seriously injured, he said.
Protests by anti-government supporters, who claimed the LCD had rigged the poll, paralysed government in mid-September and, together with a mutiny by junior army officers, sparked a call by Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili for military intervention by the 14-nation South African Development Community.