Swazi police clashed at the weekend with protesters demanding political reform in Swaziland, where King Mswati III wields absolute power, witnesses, anti-monarchist activists and reports said on Sunday.
A gunbattle broke out after police fired tear gas during a protest held on Saturday in a township in Matsapha in central Swaziland, eyewitnesses said.
A youth activist insisted that the protesters had not opened fire on the police in the southern African kingdom, wedged between South Africa and Mozambique.
”We never shot at police,” said Tipho Tshabalala of the Swaziland Youth Congress who suggested that police chief Jomo Mavuso may have sought to provoke violence.
”Maybe he knows the person who was carrying a gun. He is trying to justify their brutality against our members,” said Tshabalala.
The Times newspaper in Swaziland reported on Sunday that police tried to block the protesters when they started marching on a main road leading to the capital Mbabane.
The protesters than started throwing stones at the police, the report said.
”Sensing danger, the police fired tear gas canisters and that was when shots were heard coming from the direction of the youths,” an eyewitness said on Sunday.
Swaziland is ruled by 36-year-old King Mswati III who has been criticised for living high on the hog while his subjects struggle with back-breaking poverty and the world’s highest per-capita rate of HIV and AIDS infection, at 38,8%.
Tshabalala said his group was determined to see an end to the monarchy in Swaziland by 2008 and had not ruled out violence to reach its objective.
”We have not yet decided to meet fire with fire but the time for that will come,” he said. – Sapa-AFP