MISA ATTACKS SWAZILAND CENSORSHIP

Swaziland’s main media rights organisation has condemned the Swazi Government for bullying an independent newspaper the Times Sunday into dropping a regular column written by Mario Masuku, a human rights activist.

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) called it a ‘blatant act by the government to censor both Masuku and the Times newspaper’.

As I reported earlier this month (January 2010) Majahenkhaba Dlamini, the Attorney General, told Innocent Maphalala, the editor of the Times Sunday, he will face jail time for supporting Masuku (who the Swazi state has branded a terrorist) if he doesn’t stop publishing the articles.

Even though Masuku was acquitted of a trumped up terrorism charge in September 2009, Dlamini says the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), the organisation he leads, is a terrorist organisation.

In a letter to Maphalala the Attorney General accused him of dealing with a terrorist and in doing so ‘you and your newspaper cannot avoid being identified with the entity or its member (s).’

This is a reference to the Suppression of Terrorism Act which makes it illegal for anyone to offer any kind of support to terrorist organisations. If charged and found guilty of such an offence the editor could face up to 25 years in jail.

The MISA Swaziland chapter in a statement said it ‘strongly condemns the act by the government, and notes with great concern that the government action not only perpetuates the state of fear and censorship in the Swazi media, but also violates the basic principles of freedom of expression, a fundamental human right also guaranteed in the Swaziland constitution. The government action also greatly interferes with the editorial independence of the newspaper.

‘MISA-Swaziland has therefore appealed to the government to allow Masuku and any other Swazi citizen to exercise their right to free expression and further allow the Times newspaper to exercise its editorial independence without undue interference and threats. ‘

MISA commended the Times Sunday ‘for coming out to expose the government for its bullying action to censor the newspaper and not choose to suffer in silence’.

‘SWAZI NEWS’ AND BOGUS TERRORISTS

I think the Swazi News is trying a little too hard to stand up its story that al Qaeda terrorists are in hiding in Swaziland.

This week the Swazi News claimed that Abdullah el-Faisal, who has been in the international news this week after being expelled from the United Kingdom once visited Swaziland.

But in its story published this week it gives no details of when el-Faisal was supposed to have been in Swaziland, nor does the newspaper give any evidence to back up his claim that he was ever in the kingdom.

The story in the Swazi News, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, followed one week after the newspaper claimed that 10 ‘Asians’ were in hiding in Swaziland, that they were members of an al Qaeda cell and that they were dangerous and might blow up the kingdom’s only airport at Matsapha. The newspaper reported all of this without one shred of evidence.

It also offered no evidence that el-Faisal was actually in Swaziland but it still felt able to say his entry to the kingdom, ‘clearly exposes our spongy intelligence and immigration screening procedures because the deported cleric has been on the global terrorists watch list that is normally circulated around the world by security agencies’.

The Swazi News’ editor, Thulani Twala, writing in his own newspaper on Saturday (9 January 2010) claimed ‘real terrorism is creeping into our social fabric’ but the Government of Swaziland ‘seems to be the only one that seeks to be in denial than to properly deal with the problem’. Again, where’s the proof?

If the Swazi News really believes there are al Qaeda terrorists in Swaziland can it please give us some evidence. The best Twala could come up with in his article this week was, ‘We just reported what we had heard.’

Heard? Which bar was his reporter propping up at the time?

SWAZI POLICE COLD BLOODED KILLING

Evidence is emerging of a cold blooded killing of civilians by Swaziland police.

A man police claimed was shot while running away from them was later found to have bullet wounds in the front of his body.

Khuzumhlanga Khuza Mamba was buried at the weekend, He had been gunned down by police along with two other people after they were foiled allegedly breaking into a building at Sidvokodvo Valley Farm.

According to police reports the three men were part of a gang of five people who attempted the break in. Police say they had to shoot the men dead because the men were fleeing to avoid arrest and that it was dark so they did not know whether the suspects had guns. The shooting happened around 1am.

Mamba’s mother, Evelyn Mamba, said the police killed her so in ‘cold blood’.

It is also reported that the other two men shot with Mamba each had five gunshot wounds in their bodies.

Mamba’s body was on view at his funeral vigil. One bullet wound was above the collar bone close to the neck, the rest of the shots were fired through the chest.

‘If they were fleeing arrest why are wounds not from the back? Why were so many shots were fired from the front with nothing being mentioned by the police that the gang was armed or at least a reasonable justification that they could have been armed?’ said Mrs Mamba.

Police Public Relations Officer Senior Superintendent Vusi Masuku said, ‘The place Sidvokodvo Valley Farm was surrounded by police and anything could have happened in the thick of that night.

‘As explained before the area was surrounded and the suspects were warned to surrender but they bolted out of the door, probably in panic and the police opened fire.’

PRESS VILIFIED OVER LESBIAN’S DEATH

The murder of lesbian woman and Swaziland gay rights activist Pitseng Vilakati is beginning to attract international attention.

The latest reaction questions the role of the Swazi media in vilifying Vilakati and Thui Rudd, the woman she was planning to marry.

Rudd has been arrested for the murder of Vilakati, but people are beginning to question whether Rudd is really guilty or whether she has been set up by the Swazi media which hysterically attacked the couple after they publicly declared their love and their intention to marry.

Clarisse Thorn, writing on carnalnation said, ‘I’ve been tracking Pitseng’s story at a distance—and the Swazi media, bloodthirsty and intent on creating a circus, made it easy to track. There was a small furor after the engagement announcement in August [2009], when Pitseng and her partner Thuli Rudd declared their commitment at an upscale restaurant.

‘In September, Thuli Rudd's mother told the newspapers that her daughter had abandoned two children to her care and refused to give any help supporting them. In October, Thuli Rudd was supposedly committed to a hospital after attempting suicide. More recently, the pair was seen in court because, apparently, Thuli had stolen some items from Pitseng—but the wedding was set to go on. Then, on December 22nd, Pitseng's body was identified. She'd been found dead three days before, on Saturday.’

Thorn goes on, ‘Though it wasn't exactly explicit, the media swiftly made it clear that there was one major suspect for Pitseng's murder. Gleefully reported was the fact that Thuli was out of the country when the body was identified, and that she didn't attend her fiancée's funeral. She was detained at the border when she re-entered Swaziland, and on the 31st, it was announced that Thuli had confessed to the crime.

‘Did Thuli avoid the funeral out of guilt or because she knew the world was presuming guilt? Did she confess because she murdered her lover or because she hoped for lenience if she gave a suitably tearful apology? The paper vaguely notes that she cited "ill treatment" by police, which makes it impossible not to ask—just how voluntary was that confession?’

To read the full article click here.

NO AL QAEDA IN SWAZILAND - OFFICIAL

There are no Al Qaeda terrorists in Swaziland.

Who says so? None other than Swaziland’s illegally-appointed Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini. But even though there are no terrorists Swaziland’s security forces will remain on ‘high alert’ and will leave no stone unturned in ‘smoking out the fugitives if indeed they are in Swaziland’.

And just to be sure Dlamini said the Swaziland Commissioner of Police, Isaac Magagula, had set up a Special Task Team led by the Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Moses Maseko, together with Head of the newly Organised Crime Unit alias Tingculungculu, Josefa Bhembe, to investigate.

Sorry, Mr Prime Minister but you can’t have it both ways. Either there are no terrorists in which case there’s no need for intense security, or there are terrorists and they need to be dealt with.

The Prime Minister (who I notice the Swazi Observer, the paper in effect owned by King Mswati III, still insists on calling ‘doctor’ when he has no such qualification) was responding to a report in the Swazi News that said Asian members of al Qaeda had infiltrated Swaziland and might be planning a terrorist attack on Swaziland’s airport.

Plain old Mr Dlamini told the media this week that following the Swazi News report police conducted investigations. ‘So far, the information that has been found does not confirm the existence in Swaziland of these alleged fugitives.’

He said they have a list of names mentioned in the newspaper article. ‘Police are in contact with their international counterparts to conduct background checks on these names and people and, so far, no positive identification has been made.’

Despite the lack of terrorists this is Swaziland after all and the Prime Minister urged people to spy on their neighbours and to inform the police of anything suspicious they might see.

He also told the media they should only publish information on ‘state security’ once it had been agreed to by the Commissioner of Police.

Following the Prime Minister’s request, the Observer, gave a list of phone numbers for members of the public to call with information about terrorists.

Purely as a public service I reproduce the list below. Of course, should readers of this blog wish to phone up the police for a general chat about human rights in Swaziland who am I to stop them.

The international code for Swaziland is 268.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Moses V. Maseko who is also Director Criminal Investigation Department at 606 2303

Josefa Bhembe – Senior Superintendent, Head of the Organized Crime Unit at 608 1132

Superintendent Joseph Ndlovu, Intelligence Desk Officer Internal at 607 2210

People can also contact Police Public Relations Officer Senior Supt. Vusi Masuku at 606 2312, or by calling the Emergency Line 999, or the Confidential Line 404 6373.