/ 2 November 2000

SWAZI DISSIDENTS CALL FOR ISOLATION

SWAZI groups meeting in Johannesburg have called for an international campaign to isolate the tiny mountain kingdom to avoid civil war. “We continue to have an undemocratic, despotic, totalitarian monarchy in Swaziland,” said Bongani Masuku, secretary general of the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), an umbrella organisation working for democracy. The campaign comes after two weeks of violent incidents in which security forces have beaten and arrested protesters demonstrating against perceived human rights abuses. – AFP