Police attacked textile workers engaged in a legal and peaceful strike, Swazi newspapers have reported.
Police fired teargas into a fleeing crowd and chased workers for up to four kilometres. An unknown number of workers and two policemen were injured, according to news reports.
On the second day of the national textile workers strike in Swaziland, the news media’s attention moved from the industrial town of Matsapha to the smaller area of Nhlangano.
The Times of Swaziland reported yesterday (5 March 2008) that about 2,000 strikers pelted police with stones after police tried to move them from the front of factory gates so that some people who wanted to work could crawl through a hole in the factory fence.
The Times reported that a factory manager and police assaulted a trade union leader as he tried to complain.
Other strikers joined in the scuffle and teargas was fired.
The Times reported, ‘The employees were retaliating after teargas had been fired on the rampaging crowd by the police. The police action could only help intensify the protest instead of diffusing it as some made it clear they were prepared to fight to the end.’
The Times reported that police fired teargas ‘into the already fleeing crowd. This resulted in some people picking up injuries after they fell and were caught in the stampede.’
The workers then fled into a nearby forest
The Swazi Observer, which in its previous day’s reports had largely ignored the police violence, reported yesterday (5 March 2008) that ‘heavily armed’ police chased the workers into the forest.
The Observer also reported that police chased workers for about 4km into town.
A trade union leader told the Observer that workers sustained ‘severe injuries.’ Police denied this.
The Observer also reported that the trade union was trying to get a court order to restrain police from ‘interfering with their rights to picket peacefully as the strike is lawful’.
A union leader told the Observer, ‘The strike action is lawful and as such the workers have the right to picket peacefully.’
See also
SWAZILAND WORKERS ‘NEAR STARVING’
SWAZI POLICE RAMPAGE AGAIN
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