Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Reuters NewMedia - August 5, 2005
Ntsau Lekhetho

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office is closing nine embassies and 10 consulates as it tries to save money and concentrate on regional hubs. Lesotho and Swaziland -- both Commonwealth countries -- will now be covered from South Africa.

"Let me be clear, there are no grounds for some of the Machiavellian speculation, rumours and unfounded intrigues that have been deployed by certain in Lesotho society to make political mischief out of what is a decision taken by my government for purely financial reasons," High Commissioner Frank Martin told his farewell drinks party earlier in the week.

Britain would continue to provide its 5 million pound annual financial aid package to Lesotho, he said.

Some residents in the capital Maseru had suggested Britain suspected corrupt Lesotho officials were abusing donor funds and would cut support.

Job losses in both its own mainly Asian-owned textile factories and amongst migrant workers in South African mines have left Lesotho in an ever deepening cycle of poverty, made worse by failed harvests and a 30 percent HIV rate.

Lesotho's Foreign Minister Monyane Moleleki said that he was "grateful" for the aid pledge from Britain, a country that has made much of its commitment to tackling African poverty during its presidency of the G8 and European Union this year.

"The people and the government of Lesotho look forward in the near future to a reconsideration of the decision to close the High Commission in Maseru," said Moleleki, who had previously criticised the closure.

But few suspect that is likely. Costs of small embassies have grown in recent years, particularly as security needs rise after a lethal 2003 truck bomb attack on the British mission in Istanbul that killed the High Commissioner.

John Stremlau, head of international relations at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, said the small embassy closures were a sign Western nations would increasingly concentrate on regional powers such as South Africa rather than on each individual state.

"You can't ignore the people in these small countries but the way you address them in the future is in cooperation with Pretoria," he said. "We've got e-mail, we've got internet. What is an ambassador these days except a target for Al Qaeda?"

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