PROTEST AGAINST SWAZI PM AWARD

The protest against the human rights award to be given to Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland, is gaining momentum.

The following letter of protest is being circulated on the Internet, along with the contact details of the board members of the World Citizen Awards, the organisation conferring the honour.

Please mail the following message to them (or make your own letter):

I was surprised to read today that the World Citizen Award was to be given to Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini for his 'exemplary contributions to peace and human rights'. I would like to urge World Citizen Awards to reconsider. Swaziland in general, and Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini in particular, have a dismal record on Human Rights and political freedom.

Democracy advocates in Swaziland have been tortured for holding peaceful demonstrations and demanding a democracy that you and I take for granted, and Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has not only encouraged this, but has even recently said that his government would consider using 'Sipakatane', a form of torture used by the Portuguese colonial regime in Mozambique, to punish 'dissidents' and foreigners who come into the country to 'disturb the peace'.

We are also worried on your behalf, as your reputation could be severely tarnished by being associated with such a candidate for a human rights related award. We would therefore like to give you the opportunity to disassociate yourself from the award, as well as from the World Citizen Award in general.



BOARD MEMBERS OF WORLD CITIZEN AWARDS:

Peter Bell
Senior Research Fellow
Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations
Mailing Address
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Mailbox 143
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Email: peter_bell@harvard.edu
cc to:
Academic Dean: Mary Jo Bane
Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management
E-mail: mary_jo_bane@harvard.edu

Jacqueline Bhabha
Director, Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies
humanrights@harvard.edu

Lincoln P. Bloomfield
email: linc37@aol.com

Nawal M. Nour, MD, MPH
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Boston, MA 02115
africanwomen@partners.org

sagerinfo@sager.com
att.: Thomas M. O'Reilly

Kenneth A. Oye
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Building E40-437
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Phone: 617.253.3412
Email to: oye@mit.edu

Barbara Gunderson Stowe
stowe@martsandlundy.com

Philip S. Khoury
Associate Provost
Ford International Professor of History
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Building 10-280
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
Tel: (617) 253-0887.
Fax: (617) 253-8312
E-Mail:khoury@mit.edu
http://web.mit.edu/khoury/www/khoury.htm

Robert I. Rotberg at (617) 823.1461 or
(781) 862.4089
worldpeace1910@gmail.com

J. Brian Atwood
Fax: 612-625-3513
E-mail: hhhfdesk@umn.edu
Dean's Office
Phone: 612-625-0669
Fax: 612-625-6351
E-mail: hhhdeans@umn.edu