Swaziland Police have once again assaulted children who complained
about conditions at their school.
This time they were armed with batons when they
attacked pupils and detained about 100 of them in classrooms in Mbabane.
It happened after the students boycotted classes after
they were denied the opportunity to take part in sporting activities by their
school.
Local
media reported about 100 Mbabane Central High School pupils were detained
by police for hours for allegedly leading their colleagues into wildcat class
boycott.
‘Some of the pupils were beaten by the police officers
who did not even want to hear what the pupils were complaining about’, the Swazi
Observer reported. The students ‘ran
around the school whilst police chased after them dragging them back to class’.
The
Times of Swaziland reported, ‘Police
chased the pupils and assaulted them as they ordered them to go to class. The
action forced the pupils to run helter-skelter, with most of them jumping
through windows as they evaded the advancing police officers.’
The school said they suspended sporting activities because too many students were failing exams and needed to focus more on their studies.
The school said they suspended sporting activities because too many students were failing exams and needed to focus more on their studies.
Police in Swaziland often overreact when dealing with
school students. In June 2013 police fired live bullets children boycotted
classes in protest against alleged corruption at Mhubhe High School in
Ngculwini. Gun shots were fired at the pupils after police drove them away from
the school, but they tried to return.
In 2011, Police reportedly assaulted pupils of Mbukwane
High School after the children took part in a demonstration. The Observer reported police went to the homes of
the pupils, took them to the police station where they were interrogated
‘before being beaten up’.
One
parent told the newspaper, ‘The police were moving from home to home in
search of those children they thought were ringleaders. My son was among those
who were taken to the police station. I had to take my child to hospital after
the beating.’
In the same year, 12 schoolchildren at Kubongeni High
School, accused of being leaders in a class boycott, were
beaten up by police officers with batons, in their own school, in front of
the school’s principal. The pupils were called individually into the school’s
staffroom where the police officers and their principal were. Pupils said they
were then assaulted with batons and fists.
Local media reported the school became suspicious that
the pupils were about to organise another boycott, so the police were called.
See also
POLICE SHOOT AS CHILDREN PROTEST
SWAZI POLICE ASSAULT SCHOOL KIDS
PUPIL LEADERS BEATEN BY POLICE
SWAZI COPS FIRE LIVE BULLETS AT KIDS
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