By Botho Molosankwe
The political crisis in Swaziland may be coming to a head after members of People's United Democratic Movement (Pudemo) suffered serious injuries in a clash with the police during what was supposed to be a peaceful 21st anniversary celebration for their party.
The celebration, which had been planned since January this year, ended before it could start with members going back home, bruised and bleeding because of police beatings.
Other members claim they were followed to their homes and beaten there, while the president of Pudemo, Mario Masuku, said he was harrassed and detained for three hours.
Masuku, a diabetic who has high blood pressure, said he was refused medication.
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According to Masuku, members of Pudemo found police waiting for them at the venue of the celebration, armed with batons and rifles.
"They (police) told them to disperse and not go ahead with the celebrations to which Pudemo members objected.
"We told them we had paid for the venue and it was our right to proceed with the celebration as planned, but they started beating everyone, some people were followed to their homes and beaten there," he said.
The attack left some members seriously injured, including the secretary general, IB Dlamini, who said he had been kicked and beaten with batons and sustained head injuries that warranted an overnight stay at the hospital.
The police said the reason the Pudemo members were beaten was because they had provoked them, which Masuku dismissed as a lie.
"What kind of provocation from unarmed people would warrant such beatings?" he asked. He said members had only been singing and had no weapons with them.
Superintendent Vusi Masuku, public relations officer of Mbabane Police Headquarters, disagreed with Masuku's statements. He said activists had assaulted two officers who had approached them, asking them to disperse.
The assault, he said, left one police officer with an eye injury so serious that he had been given a week off from work.
While Mario Masuku insists that members of his party were not armed, Vusi Masuku of the police maintains that Pudemo members were armed with catapults and stones, which they threw at police.
"The police were provoked in the extreme and had to apply force to disperse members as they were unmanageable," he said.
Mario Masuku said they would openly defy all inhumane laws in Swaziland and had resolved to lobby for solidarity within the Southern African Development Community and European Union.
Pudemo Secretary General Dlamini said Swaziland's King Mswati did not want democracy because he knew that resources would have to be shared among all people.
"We want democracy like everyone else," he said.
Pudemo has planned two more meetings before the end of the year and members are adamant that they will not be stopped.
But Superintendent Vusi Masuku said political parties were still illegal in Swaziland and that it was up to the police to ensure the law was upheld.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Saturday Argus on July 17, 2004
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