Standing on South Africa's doorstep, Pope John Paul II called on the people of this desert nation Tuesday to assist victims of racial discrimination who are ``deprived of their legitimate rights.'' The pope, on a one-day visit to diamond-rich and bone-dry Botswana, praised the nation as ``an island of peace in a troubled sea.'' Botswana, a landlocked country of 1.1 million people, has never fought a battle in its 22 years of independence despite bordering such turbulent places as Angola, Mozambique, South-West Africa and South Africa. ``You are a peace-loving and friendly people who believe in the basic equality and human dignity of every man and woman,'' the pontiff told about 2,000 people who greeted him at the airport, including a choir of bare-breasted, teen-age schoolgirls. Later, in a speech at the Cathedral of Christ the King, the pontiff clearly referred to South Africa and its apartheid policies of racial segregation, without mentioning the country by name. ``You have witnessed the plight of those who are subjected by law to discrimination,'' the pontiff told the audience in Gaborone, 10 miles from South Africa's northern border. ``I gladly support your desire to be close to those who are unjustly deprived of their legitimate rights and lack decent living conditions.'' The pope arrived Tuesday from Zimbabwe, the first stop on his five-nation tour of southern Africa. He travels Wednesday to Lesotho, a mountain kingdom surrounded by South Africa, where he is likely to make additional comments on apartheid. The pontiff is not visiting South Africa on this trip but the Vatican has said he may do so in the future. At an afternoon mass in Botswana's national stadium, John Paul renewed his call for regional peace to a crowd of 50,000 _ more than Botswana's entire Catholic population of 45,000. Several thousand of those attending were from South Africa, according to church officials. ``What are the causes of humanity's fears?'' the pontiff said. ``It is the absence of justice and peace in our lives, and in the world, that so often troubles us and arouses our fears.'' ``Nation still lifts sword against nation. There is much training for war,'' he said. South Africa has raided Botswana several times in past years killing alleged guerrillas of the African National Congress. The pope was serenaded by several hundred members of a women's choir and received gifts from Catholic parishes around the country. Two parishes from western Botswana brought crosses they had carried by foot and car across the Kalahari desert, which makes up 80 percent of Botswana. Botswana has a Western-style, multiparty democracy, a rarity in Africa. Diamond mines make it relatively wealthy on the continent but it remains heavily dependent economically on South Africa. On papal matters, the Vatican said Tuesday the pope would return to Africa next year, with stops in Tanzania and the island nation of Madagascar. There has been speculation that the trip, expected next May, also may include Angola and South Africa. Vatican spokesman Joaquim Navarrro, traveling with the pope, said neither country was ``on the program,'' although he confirmed that Angolan bishops had recently sent an invitation to the pope.
