Without any fanfare or prior notification, President Nelson Mandela gave his last address yesterday before retiring from public life. The South African President used the occasion to condemn both sides in the Kosovo conflict, and appeal to the world not to marginalise Africa.
No one at the venue - a new library annexe at Beijing University - was aware of the historic import of the occasion until Mr Mandela made the announcement in an aside when accepting an honorary doctorate. The occasion was unique, he said, "not so much because it is the last address before I retire from public life" but because it symbolised closer ties between China and South Africa. The 80-year-old president, who spent 27 years in jail for opposing apartheid, will step down after the June elections and hand over to heir-apparent Mr Thabo Mbeki.
Beijing University authorities allowed only 218 ticket-holders - mostly postgraduate students and lecturers - into the auditorium. If they were concerned that the most celebrated political prisoner of the 20th century might raise the issue of human rights, they need not have worried. Mr Mandela made only a passing reference to the desire for "justice and freedom" in both countries.
The hand-picked audience applauded loudly when he attacked NATO indirectly for its action in Kosovo. "On the one hand, human rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Rights are being violated in ethnic cleansing. On the other hand, the United Nations Security Council is being ignored by the unilateral and destructive action of some of its permanent members. Both actions must be condemned in the strongest terms."
Last year Mr Mandela switched South Africa's diplomatic representation from Taiwan, which the Chinese leadership regards as a breakaway province, to Beijing.
His final words were directed towards the future of South Africa. "If we are to build a democracy worthy of the name, then we shall have to ensure that it brings real material improvements in the lives of the majority of South Africans, whose poverty is the legacy of their oppression."