SWAZI POLICE CHIEF SILENT ON RIGHTS

I’ve written recently about the new Swaziland police commissioner Isaac Magagula and his desire to ensure that his ‘clients’ (that’s ordinary people to you and me) get a good and courteous service from his officers. .

Sorry, but I don’t believe it. The Swazi police are really just agents of King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.

He and his police FORCE – and no amount of soap soaping about ‘clients’ and ‘service’ will alter the fact they are a state force – have not changed one bit.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) knows this too. In a media release SCCCO says it welcomes Magagula’s wish to tackle crime. But what about the rule of law and human rights? Not a word, not a breath.

Here’s the SCCCO statement in full.

Press Statement Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations.

For Immediate Release – 13 November 2009

Swaziland Calls on Police Commissioner to Respect Human Rights.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations welcomes the appointment of Isaac Magagula as the new Commissioner of Police. We wish him good health and good judgement in his difficult and onerous task of leading the Royal Swazi Police Force in the 21st Century. We note with concern the rising tide of crime in the country and hope that he and his officers spare no effort in preventing crime and, detecting and prosecuting criminals. We support the police in all of their efforts to keep our families, communities and the country safe and free from harm.

However, we note with the greatest of concern what Commissioner Magagula has not said since his appointment. Not once has he mentioned the police’s role of upholding the law and the rule of law. He has also neglected to mention the RSP’s attitude to the constitution and the Bill of Rights. He has never once made a commitment to respecting the human rights laid out in the constitution and the international treaties that his political masters have signed and ratified.

This lack of concern for our rights has been made clearly obvious in this week that has seen the unlawful interference by the police with worker’s rights to demonstrate at the Manzini Bus Rank and of course of Mario Masuku’s right to address a student body on Wednesday.

The Coalition’s civic education facilitators and other members also continue to be on the receiving end of police harassment when they are exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

We call on the Commissioner to make a clear statement about the RSP’s stance on respect for human, civil and political rights. We further call for a meeting with him so that these ongoing problems with his officers’ in the field can be resolved in a professional and courteous manner.

Finally we extend the offer that we made to his predecessor Senator [Edgar] Hillary that we would like to work with international colleagues to help to arrange training for his officers in policing under a bill of rights.