ANGER AT NORWAY'S SWAZI SUPPORT

The following is from Peter Kenworthy’s stiffkitten blog, published today (30 March 2011).

SOURCE

Africa Contact is asking people to write letters of protest to Norway. Click here for more details.

Danish NGO protests against Norwegian MP’s message of support for Swaziland

March 30, 2011 by Peter Kenworthy

“We at Africa Contact in Denmark wish to protest against the support for the Swazi regime that a Norwegian MP’s recent comments and dealings with Swaziland Meat Industries imply,” said a strongly worded protest to the Norwegian Embassy in Pretoria from Danish organisation Africa Contact. The organisation has worked in Swaziland, an absolute monarchy where two thirds of the population lives below the poverty line, and where all political parties are banned, for six years.

The reason for the protest was Norwegian MP Arne Haugen’s apparent declarations of support for the Swazi regime in the Swazi Observer yesterday. “I hope that my visit here can lead to more knowledge about your country among Norwegian authorities and collaboration on social issues. I am very grateful for the hospitality I have received which is unlike any other I have seen,” he was quoted of having said.

“We believe that there is plenty of knowledge already available on the plight of the Swazi population, and hope that any collaboration on social issues that the Norwegian Government plans to undertake with the Swazi regime is accompanied by concurrent demands for much-needed democratisation and financial redistribution,” was Africa Contact’s response to this statement.

The Swaziland Meat Industries’ (SMI) had invited Arne Haugen, who will be visiting a number of processing areas later in the week. Details of the visit were published in the Swazi Observer and amongst other things included visits to “numerous farmers with feedlots in the country and those in cattle farming.”

Peculiarly, the Swazi Observer claimed that Arne Haugen was Norway’s Agricultural Minister. Either this is an example of poor journalism on behalf of the Swazi Observer, a newspaper owned by Swaziland’s King. Or it is a case of the paper trying to suck up to its owner, and try to make the visit seem more diplomatically significant than it really is.

PROTEST AGAINST NORWAY SUPPORT

The Africa Contact NGO, based in Denmark, is asking people to write letters of protest to the Norwegian High Commission in South Africa to protest at comments made by Norwegian MP Urne Haugen on a visit to Swaziland. Haugen reportedly said Norway wanted to collaborate with Swaziland on social issues.

See Peter Kenworthy’s blog here for more details.

Below is a protest letter sent today by Africa Contact.

30 March 2011

To: The Royal Norwegian Embassy in South Africa
H.E. Mr Tor Christian Hildan
emb.pretoria@mfa.no


Dear Tor,

We at Africa Contact in Denmark wish to protest against the support for the Swazi regime that the Norwegian Minister of Agriculture, Urne Haugen’s, recent comments and dealings with Swaziland Meat Industries imply.

Swaziland Meat Industries (SMI) will be hosting Urne Haugen, who will be visiting a number of processing areas, according to the Swazi Observer, who quotes SMI Board Chairperson Ron Howe as saying that “the minister would visit numerous farmers with feedlots in the country and those in cattle farming.”

Mr. Haugen was quoted in the paper as saying that “I hope that my visit here can lead to more knowledge about your country among Norwegian authorities and collaboration on social issues. I am very grateful for the hospitality I have received which is unlike any other I have seen.” (http://www.observer.org.sz/index.php?news=22963)

As you are hopefully well aware, Swaziland is an absolute monarchy where political parties have been banned since a State of Emergency was issued in 1973, where the regime brutally and routinely clamps down on all calls for democracy however peaceful, where two thirds of the population live below the poverty line whilst the monarchy and small elite live in luxury, where hundreds of thousands survive on food aid from the World Food Programme, where over 40% have Aids, and where over 40% are unemployed.

In addition to this, due to the financial mismanagement of the Swazi regime, the regime has recently chosen pay cuts and redundancies of civil servants and the suspension of this quarter’s pensions for the elderly over touching the extravagant spending of the monarchy and its ministers.

We therefore believe that there is plenty of knowledge already available on the plight of the Swazi population, and hope that any collaboration on social issues that the Norwegian Government plans to undertake with the Swazi regime is accompanied by concurrent demands for much-needed democratisation and financial redistribution.

We therefore demand that the Minister in all public distance himself from the repressive regime in Swaziland, as a way to show his and Norway's full support for the democratic movement in Swaziland and their demands for multi-party democracy.

We look forward to your response to our letter.

Sincerely,

Morten Nielen and Peter Kenworthy
Africa Contact

SEE ALSO

ANGER AT NORWAY'S SWAZI SUPPORT

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/anger-at-norways-swazi-support.html

PUPILS CHAINED AND FLOGGED BARE

Girls at a Swaziland school are being flogged by teachers on their bare flesh and if they resist they are chained down so the beating can continue.

They say they get up to 40 strokes at a time.

In protest, 300 school pupils at Mpofu High School, boycotted classes.

The Swazi Observer newspaper reported the children said ‘that when they are beaten, they are made to strip naked on the lower body so that the teachers can beat them on bare flesh’.

One girl told the newspaper, ‘The teachers make us lie on a bench whereby if you are a girl you lift your skirt so that they can beat you on bare flesh, if you resist you are chained to the bench.’

The pupils said they had had enough of being abused in the name of corporal punishment and other issues affecting them in the school.

Deputy Principal Enock Dlamini told the Observer, ‘We only administer the lawful six strokes but the only difference is that we use a pipe [instead of the regulation cane] which we believe is safer.’

A reporter from the Observer visited the school and found five police officers seated next to one of the classrooms while the school gate was locked as pupils walked aimlessly inside and outside the school premises.

Instead of sitting on their backsides, the police should go in and arrest the teachers for assault.

This is far from an isolated incident in schools in Swaziland where children are regularly tortured by their teachers in the name of punishment.

See also

BAN THE BEATING OF CHILDREN NOW

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/ban-beating-of-children-now.html

DID SWAZI PM LIE OVER ‘UPRISING’?

Was Barnabas Dlamini, Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister, telling the truth when he told senators that organisers of the 12 April ‘uprising’ have agreed to meet him to discuss ‘their concerns’?

The Swazi Observer , the newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, reported Dlamini saying parliamentarians should not panic, stating that government was putting ears on the ground.

‘We are monitoring the situation closely and going to be having talks with those who are proposing the march about their concerns,’ he said.

Dlamini’s assertion that organisers of the uprising, that is being coordinated though a Facebook group, are ready to meet him may be wide of the mark.

Only last week, in response, to a previous government invitation for talks the April 12 organising committee said, ‘All that we can say as a committee organizing this historic peaceful mission is that the government of Swaziland knows what to do to avoid this uprising from occurring. We outlined our demands to them clearly. They must end this facade of a government once and for all and hand over power to a transition government elected by the Swazi people.’

It added, ‘Most importantly, the king must vacate office immediately and go on vacation pending the finalization of the future role of the monarchy by the Swazi people.’

So, what more is there to discuss?

LUCKY LUKHELE ON CHANNEL ISLAM

Lucky Lukhele, spokesperson for the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), was interviewed earlier today (29 March 2011) on Channel Islam International radio.

Lukhele spoke about the forthcoming April 12 Uprising in Swaziland and the call from the Swazi Government to cut the wages of public servants.

Click below to hear the full interview.

If you have problems you can also download it from here.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/883957715a5553d3/