Soldiers in Swaziland (eSwatini) have again been
accused of beating and humiliating innocent civilians.
The latest incidents were reported to have happened at
Nsubane in the southeast of the kingdom near the border with South Africa. A
pregnant woman was slapped and thrown to the ground by two soldiers in one of
the incidents, the Times of eSwatini reported on Wednesday (6 November
2019).
It said a 29-year-old woman was walking in the street
when she was stopped by a man in civilian clothes who demanded to look her bag.
He said he was a soldier and had a right to search her.
The Times reported she said, ‘He then grabbed
the bag but I held on to it. He was trying to pull the bag but I did not loosen
my grip. Eventually, he called another man to assist him and before I knew it
there were two men wrestling with me over the bag.’
The Times added, ‘She said after the man had
thoroughly searched the bag they dropped it down and then slapped her several times.
‘She said they accused her of disrespecting them.
‘She was slapped and kicked several times before the
men left her sprawling on the ground.’
The Times said later she went to the Nsubane
army camp to report the matter and was again assaulted. ‘She said she was
slapped several times and further pulled by the hair.’
In a separate incident also at Nsubane a 36-year-old
woman said she was assaulted and dragged on the ground by soldiers. She told
the Times a neighbour had told her that her 10-year-old son and younger
brother had been taken to the Nsubane army camp. She went to investigate and
soldiers told her to leave.
The Times reported, ‘She pleaded with them not
to assault her 10-year-old son.’
She told the newspaper, ‘As I was pleading with them
they started assaulting me. They slapped me several times and further kicked me
all over the body. Another one was hurling all sorts of insults at me.’
She said as she was leaving the camp another soldier
stopped her and ordered her to go back inside. ‘Fearing for her life,’ the Times
reported, she refused. She said, ‘He grabbed me and dragged me on the ground.’
Police are investigating both incidents.
There is a long history of army assaults on civilians
in Swaziland. In March 2019 the High
Court ruled the army, known officially as the Umbutfo Eswatini
Defence Force (UEDF), should pay E70,000 damages to a man it tortured.
High Court Principal Judge Qinisile Mabuza also criticised the kingdom’s
police for not investigating alleged assaults on civilians by members of the
army.
The case followed an incident at Vuvulane in the Lubombo region in
October 2003 when soldiers attacked Themba Maziya and kicked him with heavy
boots, punched him with fists and immersed him in a canal full of water and
assaulted him with an electric cable. Soldiers had accused him of stealing an
Army vehicle.
The High Court was told Maziya was assaulted all over the body and the
head. As a result he suffered temporary
loss of memory, he had scars all over the body and severe trauma.
This was not the only time UEDF forces had been accused of assault. In
October 2018 soldiers were said to have tortured farmers who crossed the border
with South Africa at Dwalile to retrieve their straying cattle.
Residents told the Sunday Observer
newspaper in Swaziland at the time they were abused each time they crossed a
collapsed fence dividing the two countries to collect their livestock, which
often strayed into South Africa.
The newspaper reported the farmers said members of the UEDF ‘would dip
them in a nearby swamp’ in their clothes.
It added, ‘They are also made to do frog jumps, rolled on the ground and
some are assaulted and kicked by the soldiers. Most of the abuse lasts for over
an hour and had left some of the farmers sick.’
In a separate case in June 2018 three soldiers were charged with assault
for burying a man alive after they accused him of stealing a phone from them at
Mbekelweni.
In December 2017 soldiers were accused of routinely sexually assaulting
women as they crossed border posts with South Africa. The Observer on Saturday reported at the time, ‘The army troops have
been accused by women of abusing their powers by touching them inappropriately
as they lay their hands on their buttocks just to allow to cross either to
South Africa or into Swaziland.
‘Some women when being searched for illegal goods alleged that they are
touched almost everywhere by the male army officers and these informal
crossings.’
The newspaper said the inappropriate behaviour took place ‘almost every
day’ around the Ngwenya informal crossing.
In July 2017 soldiers reportedly
forced a bus-load of passengers to strip naked after it crossed the
Mhlumeni Border Gate into Mozambique.
Local media reported it happened all the time.
The Times of Swaziland reported they
were ordered to strip ‘stark naked’ as part of a ‘routine body search’. The
newspaper said the passengers had been on vacation in Mozambique.
In June 2017 it was
reported women at the informal crossing situated next to the Mananga Border
Gate with South Africa were made to remove their underwear so soldiers could
inspect their private parts with a mirror. The Swazi Army said it happened all
the time.
Soldiers were said to be searching for ‘illegal objects’ using a mirror similar to that used to inspect the underside of cars.
Soldiers were said to be searching for ‘illegal objects’ using a mirror similar to that used to inspect the underside of cars.
Once the practice became public knowledge, the Army said it
would continue to strip people and if people did not like it they should stop
crossing the border.
In September 2015, the Swazi Parliament heard that soldiers
beat up old ladies so badly they had to be taken to their homes in
wheelbarrows. Member of Parliament Titus Thwala said that the women were
among the local residents who were regularly beaten by soldiers at informal
crossing points between Swaziland and South Africa.
See also
Army
tortures recruitment cheats
Army
sexual assaults at border posts
Soldiers
inspect woman’s private parts
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