HONOUR FOR SWAZI RIGHTS LAWYER

A second Swaziland human rights activist has won an international award.

Thuli Makama, a lawyer, has been working for the rights of people in Swaziland not to be shot if they are seen to be breaking the law.

In particular, Makama has been working with poachers who are being shot at (and at least 20 have been killed or maimed) by game rangers, who have the approval of King Mswati III.

Makama, who is head of the Swazi environmental group Yonge Nawe, has won a prestigious award called the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work.

In September 2008 I reported on a campaign for justice for Swazi man Musa Gamedz who was hunted down and executed in broad daylight because he was suspected of poaching on Big Game Parks.

A documentary by Journeyman Pictures Journeyman Pictures called Killing the Poachers revealed that King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, had given a royal warrant that allowed a chief ranger to shoot and if necessary kill people suspected of poaching. Under the Royal Warrant, the killer would not be prosecuted as long as he could show that the poacher was armed and drew a weapon first.

The award for Makama has attracted international attention to the lack of human rights in Swaziland. She told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), suspected poachers should be arrested and ‘taken through the due process of law’.

‘There are many illegal acts that should not mean you are tried, sentenced and executed at the scene.’

Makama is the second Swazi human rights activist to receive an international award in recent weeks. Last month (March 2010), Mario Masuku, president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), received the Swaziland Democracy Watch (SWADEWA) Democracy Prize 2010, from a group in Denmark.

SWAZI KING BACKS POACHER KILLER

Here’s a follow-up on the two posts I made earlier today (25 September 2008) about the campaign for justice for Swazi man Musa Gamedz who was hunted down and executed in broad daylight because he was suspected of poaching on Big Game Parks.

The kind of attack he was subjected to is common. In July 2004 Journeyman Pictures produced a short documentary film Killing the Poachers which revealed that King Mswati III had given a royal warrant that allowed a chief ranger to shoot and if necessary kill people suspected of poaching. Under the Royal Warrant, the killer would not be prosecuted as long as he could show that the poacher was armed and drew a weapon first.

In a description of the documentary, Journeyman, which describes itself as ‘London's leading independent distributor of topical news features, documentaries and footage’, said, ‘Poachers in Swaziland run the risk of being shot if they try to kill any game. They're angry rangers have been given such extreme powers. Thanks to a royal warrant, wildlife chief Ted Riley can now shoot any poacher who threatens Swaziland's wildlife. Not a single endangered rhino has been killed since the law came into force. But critics claim that Ted's rangers act with impunity: “They kill people for killing the animals that have come out to destroy their food.”

To see the documentary, which lasts nearly 14 minutes, click on this link.

See also

DEFEND SWAZILAND’S RURAL PEOPLE

SWAZI COPS LET MAN BE EXECUTED

SWAZI COPS LET MAN BE EXECUTED

On 8 August 2008 a young Swazi man, Musa Gamedze, was hunted down and executed in broad daylight at his home, in full view of his children. According to eyewitness reports the man who fired the fatal shot was the General Manager of a local private game reserve, Mkhaya, accompanied by three police officers.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) reports that Big Game Parks (BGP) owns and manages Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary and Mkhaya Nature Reserve. It also manages Hlane National Park, the country’s largest protected area, held in trust for the Nation by the King.

Musa Gamedze was part of a community that was forcibly evicted, without compensation, by BGP from land they had lived on for more than four decades. The community is still resettling and struggling to rebuild their livelihoods. Their new home is over 10km away from Mkhaya Game Reserve and the time of the shooting Musa had just returned to visit his three young children.

Musa is not the only one to suffer at the hands of BGP. Many others have been killed or left crippled in suspicious circumstances. The police and the parks rangers, when not denying responsibility, cite poaching as the reason for the attacks.

Whilst there have been reports of game poaching by the residents of the neighbouring communities, these are understood to be mainly subsistence in nature with some resulting from farmers defending their crops against marauding game from the nature reserves.

In 2005 Friends of the Earth Swaziland published a research report into the conflicts arising from the management of protected areas. It exposed numerous cases of human rights abuses which were alleged to have been committed in the name of conservation by game rangers and put forward various recommendations. These include the urgent repeal of section 23 of the Game Act, used by perpetrators of these human rights abuses to avoid prosecution.

Three years after this report the situation is critical.

For more information click here.

See also

DEFEND SWAZILAND’S RURAL PEOPLE

DEFEND SWAZILAND'S RURAL PEOPLE

Hundreds of campaigners recently called on the Prime Minister of Swaziland to uphold the rights of local communities evicted from their land and intimidated in the name of conservation.

On 8 August 2008 a young Swazi man, Musa Gamedze, was hunted down and executed in broad daylight at his home.

In early September Friends of the Earth (FoE) created a cyberaction calling on the Prime Minister of Swaziland and other powerful figures in Swaziland to arrest the killers of Gamedze and give access to justice for all other victims of abuse, torture and killings undertaken by the company Big Game Parks in the name of conservation.

So many people took part in action that the government shut down the email addresses FoE was using

FoE Swaziland will soon be handing over the names of everyone who took part in action, in the form of a petition, and demanding a response from the Prime Minister.

For more information and to join the protest click here.

See also
SWAZI COPS LET MAN BE EXECUTED