Democracy activists were outnumbered by security officers as they marched for change in Swaziland, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy.  

About 250 protesters - surrounded by security officers drawn from the police, army and even the prison service - set out from a park at the center of Manzini, Swaziland's commercial hub.  

Helmeted riot police were armed with guns, while other officers carried only batons. 

A banner carried by the marchers pledged unions to "the pursuit of democratic and civil rights." Unions have been at the forefront of the democracy campaign in a country where political parties are banned.  

Pro-democracy activists say a monarchy is ill-equipped to combat the poverty and AIDS that trouble the kingdom of 1 million wedged between South Africa and Mozambique.  

Zakhele Mabuza, spokesman for Swaziland's People's United Democratic Movement, told The Associated Press the activists were determined to go ahead.  

"But of course the environment is very hostile because the security people have been deployed in their numbers all over the city," Mabuza said. "It is very, very scary."

On the eve of the march, police deported South African trade union leaders who had come to help Swazis plan the protest. Police spokeswoman Wendy Hleta said of the foreigners: "We felt that they had no right to interfere" in Swazi affairs.  

The People's United Democratic movement said its deputy president, Sikhumbuzo Phakathi, was rounded up along with the South Africans and only located Tuesday morning, at a police station in southern Swaziland. Mabuza said a legal team had been dispatched to see whether Phakathi faced charges.  

Two AP journalists from South Africa were also stopped at the border Monday and told they would not be allowed into Swaziland to cover the protest.  

Minutes before the march was to begin, Mduzi Gina, head of the Swaziland Federation of Trade Unions, said police raided federation headquarters. Gina said they took away South Africans who had been camping there and confiscated signs and pamphlets that had been prepared for the protest. 

Gina said police confirm the march is legal, "but they are suppressing it. They are using every trick in their book."

Swazi King Mswati III is accused of repressing human rights and harassing and jailing pro-democracy activists.  

Swazi authorities have banned political meetings. Security agents in the kingdom - from police to game park guards - have been accused of killing suspects with impunity.  

Last year, a Swazi court acquitted an anti-monarchist who was jailed for a year while awaiting trial under sweeping anti-terror laws passed in 2008.  

In its latest assessment of human rights in the kingdom, the U.S. State Department singled out the terror laws, saying they were being used "to silence dissent and ban certain political organizations."

Currently, two members of a banned opposition group are jailed on charges of being behind a spate of small bomb attacks. Critics accuse Swazi police of staging the bombings to discredit Mswati's opponents.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article646117.ece/Swazis-march-for-democracy

Print      Send to a friend