International appeal for detained Swazi activists

SWAZILAND: International SOS out for detained pro-democracy activists
Monday, 9 January 2006.
By Oscar Nkala www.andnetwork.com

An SOS has been sent to 12 international organisations to provide legal and moral assistance for the 14 arrested bomb suspects.

In a letter sent by an organisation called the Southern Africa Contact, a solidarity movement for democratic institutions in African, they also appeal to the organisations to carefully follow the events in Swaziland as they unfold.

Southern Africa Contact was founded in 1978 as the Danish Anti-Apartheid
Movement. A group of Danish political parties, trade unions and movements came together in a combined effort against apartheid in South Africa.

Today Southern Africa Contact is a grassroots organisation, working in solidarity with the peoples of South Africa and Southern Africa.

Among the people the letter of assistance has been sent to are members of the House of Commons in the United Kingdom and the European Parliament.

"On the occasion of the recent arrests of members of the democratic
opposition in Swaziland, and of the treason charges raised by the prosecution, we wish to urge you to follow events very carefully." Reports of mistreatment of those arrested have already emerged. The death through police violence of the wife of one of the detainees has been confirmed.

The most recent development is the arrest of the secretary-general of the
People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), Ignatius Bonginkosi Dlamini.

"The absence of an independent judiciary must render any expectation of a fair trial of those accused illusory," states the letter signed by Patrick Mac Manus.

It continues: "The accused are in need of legal support, of international participation in coming legal proceedings, and of such publicity as will prevent further violation of human rights by the Swazi Royal Government. International vigilance is now more necessary than ever."

Before Dlamini was arrested it is gathered that he too had been in correspondence with one of the 12 organisations, Amnesty International.
Source: The Swazi Observer

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Swazi opposition to approach Amnesty International SABC News. January 09,
2006

Swazilad's main opposition party, the People's United Democratic Movement,
says it will approach Amnesty International and the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) after 11 of their members were charged with
high treason.

This comes after claims that those arrested are being tortured by police.
Allegations of police torture have surfaced at the court hearing, with the men's' lawyer asking that they be moved to a remand centre rather than a
prison. The accused were apprehended after a spate of bombings late last year.

Bonginkosi Dlamini, the party's secretary-general, faces the death penalty
if convicted. In total, 14 party figures have now been accused of bombing
the houses of several policemen and government officials. The other 13 are
also charged with high treason.

Dlamini is due to appear in court next Wednesday.

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