SWAZI SOLDIERS EXECUTE CIVILIANS

Swaziland soldiers have murdered two civilians in an execution style killing. One woman begged for her life saying she was a mother to a young baby.

The soldiers made the pair knell down and pray and perform push-ups before making them run away and shooting them dead in cold blood.

Details of the murder were revealed this week after accounts of the killings appeared in the Weekend Observer.

Suspicions had previously been aroused that soldiers had killed in cold blood two people accused of trying to smuggle a stolen Toyota Quantum vehicle into Swaziland from South Africa, but the details published are truly shocking, even by Swaziland standards where the army and police are generally recognised to be out of control.

The Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported that two people were spotted by the army in the stolen Toyota and were forced to stop after soldiers opened fire on the vehicle.

The two occupants ran from the vehicle into long grass.

The Observer reports that as the two escaped they dropped a cellphone which was picked by one of the soldiers.

The two had been using the cellphone to call for backup. Later two other people arrived in a Mazda 3 sedan. This car was driven by a woman, Lucia Dlamini, who, as she approached the ‘rendezvous’, called on her cellphone but her message was received by a soldier who told her to come closer because ‘ they were in trouble’.

Lucia followed instructions which led her car to pass through an army camp hidden in the bushes a short distance away.

‘By then the army personnel had taken positions,’ the Observer reports.

Other soldiers followed Lucia’s car while others were scouring the area for movement in case the two thieves emerged from the vast tall grasses.

After nearly three hours of no action, Lucia’s car emerged past the army camp and at the same time the two thieves stood up from the tall grass in relief that their back-up had finally arrived.

The Observer reports that residents say at first there were warning shots and the two thieves stood with raised hands.

‘But then immediately after that it was bullet to flesh. The two fell but shots continued to ring.

At about the same time Lucia’s car was sandwiched by two army vehicles, says the Observer.

‘About less than a kilomtre from the army camp Lucia’s car was ordered out of the narrow road and drove along the narrow stream. Some residents say by that time almost the entire community was watching.

‘Residents claim that the two were first ordered out of the car and to pray. Lucia was heard begging the soldiers to spare her life because she had a young baby but it all fell on deaf ears.’

The residents also say that before the woman and an accomplice were riddled by bullets they were ordered to do press ups several times.

‘They were then told to flee into the tall grasses and then shot. It was a perfect kill,’ the Observer reports.

SOLDIER BRAGS OF KILLING CIVILIANS

One of the soldiers at the centre of the cold blooded shooting of two unarmed civilians has been boasting that he killed one of them – a woman - to shut her up.

He also says that killing people is no longer an issue for him as he has now killed eight civilians in total.

The news is just one in a string of revelations about how out of control the Swaziland Army are. Complaints about the way soldiers disregard the law of the land go right the way to the top army commander.

The Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reports that one of the soldiers ‘was recently bragging in one social gathering where he told anyone who cared to listen that the woman was shot because she was a loud mouth and was threatening their jobs, so the best thing to do was to eliminate her.

‘The soldier went on to brag that killing people was no longer an issue to him because he has killed eight people in a similar fashion.’

The Swazi News reports from family sources that Thabiso Fakudze (26) was heavily beaten before he was shot.

‘This was despite that he was not resisting arrest or a threat to the soldiers. Swazi News was told how the soldiers were angered by Lucia Dlamini’s utterances; a wife to Makholweni chief’s inner council in Manzini, she is said to have told the soldiers that their conduct was unprofessional. She was said to have objected to the way they beat Thabiso and later shot him’.

The two were shot during an alleged attempt to cross the Swaziland South Africa border with a stolen Toyota Quantum kombi.

SWAZI SOLDIERS 'COMMIT ATROCITY'

Swazi soldiers are said to have pumped five bullets into the body of a man they suspected of smuggling cars.

And they beat the man to a pulp before they opened fire.

The atrocity came to light at the man’s funeral as mourners were refused sight of the body because it was in such a bad state.

Thabiso Fakudze, aged 26, was killed by the soldiers last week (December 2009) for allegedly trying to cross the border of Swaziland and South Africa with a stolen Toyota Quantum kombi.

Fakudze’s family have called on the Royal Swaziland Police to investigate the killing.

Simanga Fakudze, Thabiso’s uncle, said he suspects that he was murdered. He said his body was covered in bruises and also swollen.

Simanga said he went to the scene of the atrocity and interviewed residents who confirmed that his nephew and woman were shot at close range after getting a thorough beating.

Simanga also went to inspect the vehicle and found only one bullet hole, which disproves the claim by the army that the two were fleeing in the vehicle and disregarding warning shots.

The residents said the two were intercepted by the frontier guards before they were told to drive off and later shot. Before they were shot they were allegedly severely assaulted.

However, the army says that it did nothing outside the parameters of the law when killing the two people..