NO AL QAEDA IN SWAZILAND - OFFICIAL

There are no Al Qaeda terrorists in Swaziland.

Who says so? None other than Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini. But even though there are no terrorists Swaziland’s security forces will remain on ‘high alert’ and will leave no stone unturned in ‘smoking out the fugitives if indeed they are in Swaziland’.

And just to be sure Dlamini said the Swaziland Commissioner of Police, Isaac Magagula, had set up a Special Task Team led by the Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Moses Maseko, together with Head of the newly Organised Crime Unit alias Tingculungculu, Josefa Bhembe, to investigate.

Sorry, Mr Prime Minister but you can’t have it both ways. Either there are no terrorists in which case there’s no need for intense security, or there are terrorists and they need to be dealt with.

The Prime Minister (who I notice the Swazi Observer, the paper in effect owned by King Mswati III, still insists on calling ‘doctor’ when he has no such qualification) was responding to a report in the Swazi News that said Asian members of al Qaeda had infiltrated Swaziland and might be planning a terrorist attack on Swaziland’s airport.

Plain old Mr Dlamini told the media this week that following the Swazi News report police conducted investigations. ‘So far, the information that has been found does not confirm the existence in Swaziland of these alleged fugitives.’

He said they have a list of names mentioned in the newspaper article. ‘Police are in contact with their international counterparts to conduct background checks on these names and people and, so far, no positive identification has been made.’

Despite the lack of terrorists this is Swaziland after all and the Prime Minister urged people to spy on their neighbours and to inform the police of anything suspicious they might see.

He also told the media they should only publish information on ‘state security’ once it had been agreed to by the Commissioner of Police.

Following the Prime Minister’s request, the Observer, gave a list of phone numbers for members of the public to call with information about terrorists.

Purely as a public service I reproduce the list below. Of course, should readers of this blog wish to phone up the police for a general chat about human rights in Swaziland who am I to stop them.

The international code for Swaziland is 268.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Moses V. Maseko who is also Director Criminal Investigation Department at 606 2303

Josefa Bhembe – Senior Superintendent, Head of the Organized Crime Unit at 608 1132

Superintendent Joseph Ndlovu, Intelligence Desk Officer Internal at 607 2210

People can also contact Police Public Relations Officer Senior Supt. Vusi Masuku at 606 2312, or by calling the Emergency Line 999, or the Confidential Line 404 6373.