stiffkitten blog
June 29, 2012
Help us end
Africa’s last absolute monarchy, banned political movement tells
Danish MP’s
“The current
situation in Swaziland now is that over the past 12-15 years, it has become
worse than under colonialism. We have for a long time being fighting a very
lone struggle as the international media have ignored our struggle and reported
only stories about the king or about what a beautiful country Swaziland is,”
Skhumbuzo Phakathi told Danish MP’s last week [20. June].
“With more support for our cause, nationally and
internationally, we will be able to put pressure on the Swazi regime. But we
need outside help as I am yet to see a struggle won only by the people and not
with help from outside.”
Skhumbuzo Phakathi is the Secretary General of the
largest illegal party in Swaziland, the People’s
United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), and was speaking during two meetings
with representatives of two Danish parties, the Red-Green
Alliance and the Social Democrats.
One of the representatives, foreign policy spokesman and MP Christian Juhl from the Red Green Alliance, told Africa Contact that he believed that “meeting Skhumbuzo was important, and it is also important that Denmark support Pudemo and democratisation initiatives in Swaziland.”
One of the representatives, foreign policy spokesman and MP Christian Juhl from the Red Green Alliance, told Africa Contact that he believed that “meeting Skhumbuzo was important, and it is also important that Denmark support Pudemo and democratisation initiatives in Swaziland.”
Phakathi was in Denmark as part of a tour of the Nordic
countries, amongst other things to try and gain support for PUDEMO’s enduring
attempts to bring democracy and social and economic reform to Swaziland, a
small absolute monarchy bordering South Africa where the majority of the
population survive on less than a dollar a day while the royal family live in
luxury, where all political parties are illegal and where PUDEMO and others who
call for democratic reform are branded terrorists, detained and brutalised.
“We are not demanding mountains,” Phakathi told the
Danish politicians. “We are saying that the king must unban parties, that the
media must be released, that the state must stop brutalising people, that the
monarchy must not be an executive monarchy as it is now.”
And the situation is becoming increasingly desperate and
explosive, he insisted. “Many people die of hunger in Swaziland. More than
250.000 live on food aid out of a population of 1.2 million. The educational
and health systems have collapsed. And as a result of the lawlessness, police
just kill and detain pro-democracy activists. People are getting restless and
we don’t know for how long we are able to contain their anger.”
Even though the Swazi regime has no respect for human
rights or the rule of law, the international community has chosen to remain
silent about its many transgressions against its own population even though
they have spoken out against the lack of democracy and human rights in other countries,
said Skhumbuzo Phakathi.
The much-publicised democratic irregularities in Zimbabwe
are a point in case, he says. “Yes people in Zimbabwe are suffering, but they
at least have one thing that we don’t have in Swaziland – basic democratic
structures.
No comments:
Post a Comment