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THE SMART NEWS SOURCE | Feb 09 2012 16:05 | LAST UPDATED Feb 09 2012 16:05 |
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Security officers outnumbered about 250 democracy activists on Tuesday as they marched for several hours during a largely peaceful demonstration in Swaziland, sub-Saharan Africa's last absolute monarchy. Helmeted riot police armed with guns and other officers carrying only batons had monitored the march. A scuffle broke out when police detained Mario Masuku, president of the People's United Democratic Movement. Police spokesperson Wendy Hleta said Masuku and several others linked to banned groups were briefly detained for questioning. She also said one unnamed protester was arrested and charged with attacking a police officer. 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 HIV/Aids that trouble the kingdom of one million wedged between South Africa and Mozambique. Zakhele Mabuza, spokesperson for the People's United Democratic Movement, told the Associated Press the activists were determined to go ahead. 'Very, very scary' "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 spokesperson Hleta said of the foreigners: "We felt that they had no right to interfere" in Swazi affairs.  CONTINUES BELOW The People's United Democratic movement said its deputy president, Sikhumbuzo Phakathi, was rounded up along with the South Africans and only located on 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 also were stopped at the border on 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. Silencing dissent Swazi King Mswati III is accused of repressing human rights and harassing and jailing pro-democracy activists. 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 US State Department singled out the terror laws, saying they were being used "to silence dissent and ban certain political organisations". 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. - Sapa-AP TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
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