SWAZILAND: NEW DANGER TO TOURISTS

In the week that a radio station in London is set to broadcast a programme claiming Swaziland is an idyllic place for tourists to visit and is one of Africa’s best kept secrets, the UK Government has issued a new alert to visitors on the dangers of visiting the kingdom.

In an update on its travel advice, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) warns travellers that they should be alert to ‘terrorist attacks which could be in public areas, including those frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers’.

As well as the new terrorist development, the FCO continues to warn that motorists ‘should avoid travelling into or out of Swaziland by road at night. There have been numerous incidences of car hijacking on major routes from South Africa and Mozambique’.

It says, ‘Do not use public transport (buses and taxis). Vehicles are, generally, poorly maintained and overloaded.’

It also warns that ‘street crimes and burglaries do occur, sometimes involving violence. There have also been incidents of vehicles being taken at gunpoint. Avoid walking in the downtown areas of Mbabane and Manzini after dark and do not picnic in remote rural areas unless in a large group.

‘Keep valuables in a safe place and avoid carrying large amounts of money or wearing conspicuous jewellery.’

The FCO also warns visitors that the Swazi police will use force to disperse demonstrators. ‘The political situation is stable, but periodically there are organised demonstrations relating to labour and political issues in the Kingdom. Certain political parties have been banned and designated terrorist organisations. We advise visitors to avoid gatherings which, if regarded as unauthorised demonstrations, could be dispersed by the police authorities using a degree of force,’ it says.

For some reason that I can’t explain, the FCO has not caught up with this piece of advice to tourists. ‘While in Swaziland do not dare to speak about the numerous human rights abuses in the kingdom because Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has said he will have the feet of tourists whipped as punishment.’

FURY AT UK NATIONAL'S HARASSMENT

Swaziland’s government is under attack from the United Kingdom over the way it treated a UK national during last week’s protest action in the kingdom.

Swazi police rounded up foreigners who attended a meeting in support of democratic change in the kingdom ruled by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, and after assaulting and harassing them expelled them from Swaziland.

Now a representative of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has said it will be ‘making representations’ towards the Swazi regime over the ‘mistreatment’ of a UK foreign national during the Global Week of Action in Swaziland.

Peter Kenworthy, who writes the stiffkitten blog, reports today (17 September 2010). ‘The Foreign and Commonwealth Office takes all allegations of mistreatment against British nationals very seriously and will raise the allegations with the relevant authority in the country concerned,’ the representative wrote on 16 September in a reply to an email sent to them raising the issues of the mistreatment of a British citizen on 7 September in Manzini.

A delegation from Danish organisation Africa Contact, including two Danish citizens and one British, Peter Kenworthy, were detained by police, beaten, threatened, and denied any legal representation, food, drink, or visits to the toilet during a five hour ordeal at Manzini Regional Police Headquarters.

The representative also stated that they would ask ‘our High Commission in Pretoria to raise the allegations with the Swaziland authorities’, and insisted that they would ‘ask for an investigation to be conducted and the perpetrator(s) brought to justice’.

LONDON DEMO FOR SWAZI DEMOCRACY

A protest to support democracy in Swaziland will take place in London tomorrow (7 September 2010).

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) in the UK said the protest will take place at 12noon outside the Swaziland High Commission, 20 Buckingham Gate, London SW1 E 6LB.

The TUC in a statement also condemned today’s arrests in Swaziland of pro-democracy activists. It called on the Swazi government to allow peaceful demonstrations to take place.

Tomorrow is slated as Global Day of Action in Swaziland (and protests will continue for the rest of the week).

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said, ‘The feudal dictatorship of the King of Swaziland has left his country racked with poverty, and with the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the world.

‘His Government should be concentrating on fighting poverty and disease, not the Swazi people.’

LAWYERS FIGHT SWAZI'S DEPORTATION

The Swazi ‘democracy activist’ who was supposed to have been deported from Britain on Tuesday last week has still not been deported.

This is because her lawyers are fighting her deportation order.

According to Tony Dykes, Director of Action Southern Africa (ACTSA), Thobile Gwebu, the democracy activist who organised weekly demonstrations Swaziland Vigil at the Swazi Embassy in Britain, was still fighting against her deportation order.

Gwebu was detained on August 12 and scheduled to be deported on August 17.

"On August 16, I was informed that her lawyer was appealing the order to deport her and if that was not successful, would seek an injunction. I wrote to the Home Secretary requesting her deportation to be stopped as we had concerns about her wellbeing if she returned to Swaziland," Dykes said when asked about Gwebu’s whereabouts.

Gwebu is one of the pro-democracy Swazis who organised a weekly night vigil in Britain, picketing the kingdom’s embassy, advocating for democracy in Swaziland.

The night vigil was to try and organise Swazis living abroad as well as other solidarity activists from Africa to protest against the country.

SOURCE: Times of Swaziland