IV.  POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

As noted, Lesotho and the United States enjoy warm bilateral
relations.  The U.S. established an embassy in Maseru shortly
after Lesotho's independence from Great Britain in 1966, and has
contributed substantially to economic development in Lesotho in
the years since then, usually as either the largest or second-
largest bilateral donor on an annual basis.

After four years of multiparty constitutional government
following independence, Lesotho's constitution was suspended in
1970 after the ruling Basotho National Party (BNP) refused to
cede power to the rival Basotholand Congress Party (BCP), widely
believed to have won elections that year.  Under Prime Minister
Leabua Jonathan, the BNP governed until a military coup in 1986
brought a Military Council to power under Major General Justin
Lekhanya.  The military government began a process to draft a new
constitution and return Lesotho to democratic rule.  The military
sent King Moshoeshoe II into exile in 1990; Moshoeshoe's son
Letsie was installed as king, but Moshoeshoe returned to Lesotho
in 1992 and seeks to regain his throne.  The BCP came to power in
a landslide encompassing every seat in the new National Assembly,
in March 1993 elections.  Since early 1994, political stability
has eroded as first the army, then the police and prisons
services, staged mutinies to demand pay increases.  In one April
1994 episode, mutinous soldiers killed Lesotho's deputy prime
minister.  The BCP government's inability to deal with its
mutinous security forces has invited attention and expressions of
support for Lesotho's emerging democracy from regional states.

Under the constitution, national elections must be held again no
later than March 1998.  The BNP and BCP remain the principal
rival political organizations in Lesotho; earlier differences in
political orientation between the two parties has blurred in
recent years, as South Africa's transition to majority rule has
led to a more pragmatic regional political context.