PROTEST AGAINST SWAZI PM AWARD

The protest against the human rights award to be given to Barnabas Dlamini, the illegally-appointed Prime Minister of Swaziland, is gaining momentum.

The following letter of protest is being circulated on the Internet, along with the contact details of the board members of the World Citizen Awards, the organisation conferring the honour.

Please mail the following message to them (or make your own letter):



I was surprised to read today that the World Citizen Award was to be given to Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini for his 'exemplary contributions to peace and human rights'. I would like to urge World Citizen Awards to reconsider. Swaziland in general, and Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini in particular, have a dismal record on Human Rights and political freedom.

Democracy advocates in Swaziland have been tortured for holding peaceful demonstrations and demanding a democracy that you and I take for granted, and Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has not only encouraged this, but has even recently said that his government would consider using 'Sipakatane', a form of torture used by the Portuguese colonial regime in Mozambique, to punish 'dissidents' and foreigners who come into the country to 'disturb the peace'.



We are also worried on your behalf, as your reputation could be severely tarnished by being associated with such a candidate for a human rights related award. We would therefore like to give you the opportunity to disassociate yourself from the award, as well as from the World Citizen Award in general.







BOARD MEMBERS OF WORLD CITIZEN AWARDS:

Peter Bell

Senior Research Fellow

Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations

Mailing Address

John F. Kennedy School of Government

Mailbox 143

79 JFK Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

Email: peter_bell@harvard.edu

cc to:

Academic Dean: Mary Jo Bane

Thornton Bradshaw Professor of Public Policy and Management

E-mail: mary_jo_bane@harvard.edu



Jacqueline Bhabha

Director, Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies

humanrights@harvard.edu



Lincoln P. Bloomfield

email: linc37@aol.com



Nawal M. Nour, MD, MPH

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Boston, MA 02115

africanwomen@partners.org



sagerinfo@sager.com

att.: Thomas M. O'Reilly



Kenneth A. Oye

77 Massachusetts Ave.

Building E40-437

Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Phone: 617.253.3412

Email to: oye@mit.edu



Barbara Gunderson Stowe

stowe@martsandlundy.com



Philip S. Khoury

Associate Provost

Ford International Professor of History

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Building 10-280

77 Massachusetts Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02139-4307

Tel: (617) 253-0887.

Fax: (617) 253-8312

E-Mail:khoury@mit.edu

http://web.mit.edu/khoury/www/khoury.htm



Robert I. Rotberg at (617) 823.1461 or

(781) 862.4089

worldpeace1910@gmail.com



J. Brian Atwood

Fax: 612-625-3513

E-mail: hhhfdesk@umn.edu

Dean's Office

Phone: 612-625-0669

Fax: 612-625-6351

E-mail: hhhdeans@umn.edu