Times Of Swaziland: Let's stop police brutality

Let's stop police brutality
================================================================================
Musa Hlophe on 24/03/2013 00:00:00


On Tuesday morning before 6am, the Royal Swaziland Police raided the houses of
five young men who live in an area just south of Manzini.
The five men were not told why the police were there but were threatened with
beatings and forced against their will into the waiting police vehicles.
There were no warrants for their arrests.
Their families were not even told where the police were taking them.
Colleagues of mine were told about the situation and they set about trying to
find out where the men were held and what crimes they were being investigated
for.
It turns out that there is an ongoing dispute between the youth of that area and
its inner council. The youth are unhappy that a playing field that they have
been using for many years for games, exercise and fun has been handed over to
the local school without any community consultation or consideration of the
needs of its users, the young people.
The school apparently added insult to injury by erecting a steel mesh fence
around the field.
They youth is asking for the field to be returned to community use.
At the same time, there has been an incident where a car belonging to a local
dignitary has caught fire and also the wire fence surrounding the field has been
cut.
The police claimed that these incidents are linked to the dispute and were
bringing the young men in for investigations.
When I say ‘investigations,’ I really mean ‘interrogations.’
Some of the men were not only questioned but they also claim that they were
quite severely physically threatened, beaten with an open hand and closed fists
and they allegedly had their heads put inside plastic bags and were suffocated
to the point of terror.
All the time they were being questioned, they claim the police were continually
telling them about the people who had already died in their cells when they did
not cooperate.
They claim the police boasted that nobody could prosecute them since they would
simply find the dockets and tear them up. They allegedly said they feared nobody
and were above the law.
Thankfully, all of the young men were released the same day.
When my colleagues and I met them, we found a group of very scared and upset
individuals whose self confidence and esteem had been badly shaken.
Unfortunately, in my work as a human rights defender, I have heard many similar
Swazi and South African stories. I believe these men to be honest.
In the week that the initial findings are being handed down on the killing of 37
miners by South African Police Service this might seem like a minor incident
and, of course, in comparison to that massive tragedy, it is.
My respect and condolences go out to all of the families concerned.
However, if we, in Swaziland, do not deal with our small incidents now, we will
have to deal with bigger ones later.
Obviously, we needed to get the men who had been beaten some medical attention,
and this is where things get interesting. At Raleigh Fitkin Memorial Hospital in
Mazini, nobody was even prepared to treat them. When they told the medics of the
nature of their injuries and their causes, they were sent from department to
department and told to wait until it became obvious that they were not going to
be treated. They eventually got the message and left. The problem in Swaziland
with assault injuries is that you usually need a form from the police before the
Medics can treat you.
The police are not going to give you a form when they are the ones who assaulted
you in the first place, will they?
So, in exasperation, the men came to my office and we thought we could try some
of the non-governmental organisations that also give medical services. We tried
both Baylor Clinic in Mbabane and Médiciens Sans Frontièrs (Doctors Without
Borders) in Matsapha.
We were relieved that these organisations were prepared to treat the men for
their injuries but we were shocked neither of them was prepared to go any
further and provide a more detailed examination, which we could use to, not only
heal these men’s bodies but to protect their human rights and find for them
some sort of useable, independent evidence of the abuses they had suffered. We
provided the MSF doctors with written advice from a colleague of ours who is an
Independent Forensic Pathologist and who has expertise in dealing with exactly
these sorts of cases. Our local NGO doctors flatly refused to carry out any of
his suggested additional tests or examinations. They had ‘orders’ from
above.
We even went to a local Swazi doctor and offered to pay him but he refused: he
simply did not want to get involved in any way with challenging the government
in court.
I can imagine that it was the same for the foreign organisations.
MSF, Baylor and others come here to do amazing and good work in treating
hundreds and thousands of sick children and adults in the country.
Without their help, many, if not most, of these people would die.
However, to do this brilliant work, they have to make a devil’s pact with our
government.
They are not allowed to get into ‘politics’.
Now, in Swaziland, what we call ‘politics’ is not really politics at all. In
most countries ‘politics’ is the contesting for power by an organisation.
Around here, any form of questioning of the government is deemed a political
act. In any normal country, questioning the government is seen as an act of
citizenship, not betrayal. However, questioning the government over policy is
one thing, what we have here is ignoring some serious breaches of freedoms that
are in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights and are attacks on the local
defenders of these rights.
International Treaties the Swaziland Government has signed and even ratified
have recognised the fact that the defence of human rights is not a political
act. Human Rights are, by their very nature, universal. They apply to all
people.
Politics is the very opposite.
It is an attempt to win the hearts and minds of not all of the people but only
of most, or even many, of them. Rights are universal, politics are partial.
In my opinion, doctors who treat us do not have the right to decide they will
only care for our immediate medical pains.
They know that doctors have eradicated terrible diseases like cholera through
preventative action. The writing of detailed reports on human rights abuses is
similar. It can be used to prevent further harm.
The flu vaccine might only protect half the population. It’s not perfect but
is definitely better than nothing.
Doctors use it all the time.
A report that details the injuries and comes to some reasonably considered
conclusions can be just as effective in stopping injuries to other victims of
police violence as a flu vaccine - not perfect, just better.
Do we really believe the Swazi Government is so callous that it would allow
thousands of TB patients to die so that it would not be embarrassed by reports
on a few rogue police officers who torture innocent (or even guilty) suspects?
Can you imagine the international outcry if Baylor and MSF were kicked out of
the country for merely saying the injuries that some people presented to them
were consistent with beatings, suffocation, electrocution and other cruel and
unusual punishment?
This government is not so cruel or short sighted, is it?
I think the directors of these Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) need to
meet with some of us human rights defenders in the country to establish a
protocol for medical examinations for victims of alleged state brutality. The
government will then be placed in a position. If it wants to continue to ask for
these organisations’ help in dealing with the worst HIV, AIDS and TB crises,
the world has ever seen, it must allow them to report on allegations about its
police officers’ abuses, beatings and strangling of suspects.
If there is something or nothing, in the allegations, the doctors can, and must,
say so. The people I work for want to deal with the truth, not propaganda. If
the evidence of abuse is there, we need doctors to tell us so.
Protection of Human Rights is not an option. These rights are universal and
indivisible. The right to life is the same whether you are sick or healthy.
It applies to the supporters and opponents of governments.
It is not enough to heal the sick or the injured when you have an option to
prevent them coming to harm.
To me, accurately reporting on injuries obtained as a result of Human Rights
abuses is a valid public health intervention.
In the meantime, if you, or people you know, have been threatened, beaten, or
strangled or abused by the police, call my office at the Caritas Centre in
Manzini and ask for Lungile. We can only make these abuses stop if we all act
together. By telling our stories, we will not only heal our hurt but stop other
people getting hurt too. Our police are here to protect, not hurt us.
-------------------------
COMMENTS:
- We cannot stop police brutality as long as Majozi persists in giving huge
budget allocations to the security forces. The police have too much money and
they think they must been seen to be spending it 'appropriately', which is on
the abuse of the citizens of this country. Look at the budget allocation for the
armed forces. It, too, is to be used on the citizens of this country because I
don't see any war coming our way. Until we all all lodge our national concerns
on these things they will continue despite the provisional protections we are
supposed to enjoy in our constitution. Our tax moneies are not supposed to be
used to abuse us.
March 24, 2013, 7:39 am, Disgruntled Swazi Tax Payer
Maybe we also need an independent Internal Affairs unit that will be set up to
look into these complaints.
March 24, 2013, 7:08 am, Kelekele
- Its becoming a bad habit,that's why the father of the deceased soldier who was
killed by many soldiers bewitched them I can. Go straight to him an ask for help
their duty is arrest not to assault n kill that's the only option we tired about
this stories.
March 24, 2013, 5:24 am, linda