Police in Swaziland
illegally abducted prodemocracy leaders on Saturday (12 April 2014), drove them
up to 30 kilometres away, and dumped them to prevent them taking part in a meeting
calling for freedom in the kingdom.
Police staged
roadblocks on all major roads leading to Swaziland’s main commercial city, Manzini,
where protests were to be held.
Police also
physically blocked halls to prevent meetings taking place. Earlier in the day police had announced on
state radio that meetings would not be allowed to take place.
The intended protests
were part of the annual 12 April commemorations in Swaziland. On 12 April 1973 King
Sobhuza II issued a Royal proclamation dissolving parliament, banning political
parties and placing all power in the kingdom in the hands of the monarchy. This
was because he disapproved of some of the MPs elected to parliament by his
subjects.
Today, King Mswati III
rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
Swazi media
reported that trade union leaders including Vincent Ncongwane, the
Secretary General of Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (TUCOSWA); Quinton
Dlamini, President of National Public Service and Allied Workers Union
(NAPSAWU) and Thandokwazi Dludlu, Secretary General of the Public and Private
Sector Transport Union (PPSTWU) were separately arrested by police and taken to
a series of police stations for questioning. They were denied
access to lawyers.
The Times
Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reported, they were separately
taken to up to 30 km away from the planned meeting place and then dumped.
The leaders were
among a number of trade unionists reportedly picked up by police for
questioning.
Meanwhile, more than 50 workers from textile firms were blocked from
a meeting organised by TUCOSWA at a school in Manzini. Police made sure the
workers could not meet elsewhere and blocked the gates to Caritas, a popular venue
for prodemocracy meetings, in Manzini, Local media also reported armed police
were at the Mandlenkhosi Ecumenical House to prevent a meeting taking place
there.
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