SWAZILAND RESEARCH ONLINE

Thank you to those who contacted my after I uploaded a number of documents / reports and various interesting items about Swaziland on the Internet last month (December 2009).

I promised to upload more and here they are (apologies for the delay but I am presently in an ‘occupied territory’ a long way from Swaziland and good Internet connections are not a priority here.)

There are more than 50 documents uploaded so far (and more to come – eventually). They cover a range of topics about Swaziland, including human rights, civil liberties, gender, children’s rights, economics, HIV AIDS, media freedom, among others.

I hope you find them useful. I see the site has had nearly 3,000 visits already.

To find the documents go to here

You can use a search engine there to find what you are looking for.

KING AND P.M. DON’T AGREE ON PEACE

They can’t both be right. This week we had King Mswati III writing that Swaziland is a peace loving kingdom and just a few days later Barnabas Dlamini, the man he illegally appointed Prime Minister, says there is a continuous terrorist threat.

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) pointed this out in a response to Dlamini’s much publicised statement on the future direction of Swaziland.

SCCCO says in a statement, ‘The Government continues to hold on to the myth that there is a terrorist threat in Swaziland. We would like to remind them that terrorism is of a scale and degree far beyond the low levels of politically based violence that Swaziland has encountered in the last few years.

‘His Majesty, King Mswati III wrote in an international article this week that Swaziland is a peaceful and happy country. He actually says ‘As a peace loving nation, the Kingdom of Swaziland strongly believes in promoting dialogue to address national issues and challenges. It is for that reason that our country is known all over the world to be the oasis of peace.’

‘His Prime Minister singles out Terrorism as a “continuous threat”. All of the actions under the Suppression of Terrorism Act are against Swazis not foreigners – can both be true? Or is the reality that the Suppression of Terrorism Act is merely a vehicle for silencing legitimate dissent?’

SCCCO is also concerned that there is no structure in place for the Prime Minister’s statement to be questioned or debated.

The analysis covers a wide range of policy topics including law enforcement, political objectives, economic objectives, foreign policy objectives, independence of the judiciary and the duties of the citizen.

To read the statement in full, click here.