Stiffkitten Blog
24 May 2012
Amnesty
International annual report criticises “brutal” Swazi regime
“Arbitrary and
secret detentions, political prosecutions and excessive force were used to
crush political protests,” Amnesty International writes about Swaziland in
their 2012
annual report on the state of human rights throughout the world that was
released today [24 May].
Swaziland is an absolute monarchy where all political
parties are banned, where the monarch King Mswati III rules by decree and where
two thirds of the population survive on under a dollar a day whilst the royal
family spend lavishly on luxury items and prestige projects.
The Amnesty report focuses at length on mass demonstrations
in April 2011 that were brutally suppressed by police and security forces. “In
April, the government banned protest marches planned for 12 to 14 April by
trade unions and other organizations. Arbitrary and secret detentions, unlawful
house arrests and other state of emergency-style measures were used to crush
peaceful anti-government protests over several days.”
The treatment of student leader, Maxwell Dlamini, who was
detained and tortured during the mass demonstrations (although the torture of
Maxwell at the hands of security police is for some reason not mentioned in the
report), is held up as an example of the regime’s suppression of the democratic
movement in April 2011, as is that of (banned political party) Ngwane National
Liberatory Congress activist Ntombi Nkosi.
“Maxwell Dlamini, President of the Swaziland National
Union of Students, was detained between 10 and 12 April and held incommunicado
without access to a lawyer or contact with his family. The day after his
release he was rearrested, along with Musa Ngubeni, a political activist and
former student activist leader. They were denied legal access while in police
custody and during their hearing at the magistrate’s court.”
“On 12 April, 66-year-old Ntombi Nkosi, an activist with
the Ngwane National Liberatory Congress (NNLC), was on her way home, having
received medical treatment after tear gas was thrown at her, when she was
confronted by three armed police officers. They questioned her about wording
relating to the NNLC on her T-shirt and head scarf and then allegedly grabbed
her, pulled off her T-shirt and headscarf and assaulted her. They throttled
her, banged her head against a wall, sexually molested her, bent her arms
behind her back, kicked her and then threw her against a police truck. A
passing taxi driver helped her to get away.”
The report also clearly points to the fact that the
regime has closed of all avenues of dialogue with the democratic movement. “The
government ignored renewed efforts by civil society organizations to open a dialogue
on steps towards multi-party democracy. At the UN Universal Periodic Review
hearing on Swaziland in October, the government rejected recommendations to
allow political parties to participate in elections.”
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