Mandela attracted controversy for his close relationship with Indonesian president Suharto , whose regime was responsible for mass human rights abuses , although on a July 1997 visit to Indonesia he privately urged Suharto to withdraw from the occupation of East Timor . He also faced similar criticism from the West for his government 's trade links to Syria , Cuba , and Libya , and for his personal friendships with Castro and Gaddafi . Castro visited in 1998 to widespread popular acclaim , and Mandela met Gaddafi in Libya to award him the Order of Good Hope . When Western governments and media criticised these visits , Mandela lambasted such criticism as having racist undertones , and stated that " the enemies of countries in the West are not our enemies . " Mandela hoped to resolve the long-running dispute between Libya and the US and Britain over bringing to trial the two Libyans , Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah , who were indicted in November 1991 and accused of sabotaging Pan Am Flight 103 . Mandela proposed that they be tried in a third country , which was agreed to by all parties ; governed by Scots law , the trial was held at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands in April 1999 , and found one of the two men guilty
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Nelson Mandela