Police in Swaziland are now a ‘private militia’ with the
sole purpose of serving the Royal regime, leading pro-democracy campaigners
have said.
This follows police action that yesterday (12 April 2013)
broke up a public meeting to discuss the lack of democracy in the kingdom.
About 80 armed police stopped the meeting taking place at
a restaurant in Manzini, the main business city in Swaziland. Police, who did
not have a court order for the action, said the meeting ‘presented a threat to
national security’.
The meeting was to mark the 40th anniversary of the Royal
decree made in 1973 by King Sobhuza II that turned Swaziland from a democracy
into a kingdom ruled by an autocratic monarchy. The existing constitution was
abandoned and King Sobhuza announced he could make any that laws he saw fit.
The decree has never been rescinded and today Sobhuza’s
son King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch.
In a statement the joint organisers of the meeting, the Swaziland
United Democratic Front (SUDF) and the Swaziland Democracy Campaign (SDC),
said, ‘The police action did well to vindicate us in our constant observation
that the 1973 decree destroyed a national police service and instead left us
with a private militia with no other purpose but to serve the unjust,
dictatorial, unSwazi and ungodly, semi-feudal royal Tinkhundla system of
misrule.’
The statement said the 1973 decree ‘criminalised’ all
political activity and concentrated all power to the monarchy, the armed
forces, intelligence services and the Swaziland Royal Police.
It said the police had no court order for their action
and ‘went out of their way to forcefully, aggressively and abruptly stop the
peaceful national debate’ that would have taken place at the meeting.
It added that a police service ‘should uphold justice,
human dignity and protect all sections of society in accordance with the law’.
Last week, the Open Society Initiative for Southern
Africa (OSISA) reported that recently Swaziland police and state security
forces had shown ‘increasingly violent and abusive behaviour’ that was leading
to the ‘militarization’ of the kingdom.
OSISA told the African
Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia, ‘There
are also reliable reports of a general militarization of the country through
the deployment of the Swazi army, police and correctional services to clamp
down on any peaceful protest action by labour or civil society organisations
ahead of the country’s undemocratic elections.’
See also
SWAZILAND ‘BECOMING MILITARY STATE’
POLICE BAN DEMOCRACY PUBLIC MEETING
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