Swazi regime
detain PUDEMO member for handling pamphlets on state of
emergency anniversary
Kenworthy News Media
April 16, 2013
Wonder Mkhonza, National Organising Secretary of the
banned Swazi political party the People’s United Democratic Movement and
Secretary General of the Swaziland Processing Allied Workers Union, was
detained on Friday April 12, allegedly for being in possession of 5000 PUDEMO
pamphlets, writes Kenworthy News Media.
The democratic movement in Swaziland was marking the 40th
anniversary of the state of emergency and banning of all political parties in
1973 by King Sobhuza II in 1973 when Mkhonza was detained by police at
Lavumisa, a small town near the South African border.
According to PUDEMO, Wander Mkhonza is currently under
police detention in Nhlangano in the South of Swaziland after he was
transferred from Lavumisa Saturday evening. He is expected to appear in court
Wednesday, although the authorities have yet to reveal the charges.
There is reasonable suspicion that Mkhonza might be
tortured whilst detained. Swaziland ratified the United Nations Convention
Against Torture in 2004. Nevertheless, there have been many reports of torture
and beatings by Swazi police, security forces and prison officers, including
the torture of student leader Maxwell Dlamini and the death of PUDEMO member
Sipho Jele, who was detained for having worn a PUDEMO t-shirt and died in
prison under mysterious circumstances.
Amnesty International reported in their 2011 Universal
Periodic Review hearing on Swaziland, that “severe beatings and suffocation
torture” were “persistent forms of ill-treatment” in police custody. And
Swaziland’s Prime Minister, Barnabas Dlamini, has warned that sipakatane – a
form of torture where people’s feet are repeatedly beaten with spikes – could
be used against protesters.
“It is unacceptable that Swaziland’s absolute monarchy
detains political activists for being in possession of political pamphlets,”
says Danish MP and Foreign Policy spokesperson, Christian Juhl from the Red
Green Alliance, who have recently started a government-funded project together
with PUDEMO that aims to democratize Swaziland. “We have contacted the Danish
embassy as we are worried that Wonder Mkhonza might be harmed.”
Sign petition to free Wonder Mkhonza: http://www.change.org/petitions/free-wonder-mkhonza
See also
ACTIVIST MIGHT FACE SEDITION CHARGE
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