Clean your house, EU tells Mswati

Mswati III, King of Swaziland, waits to address the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 26, 2012. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS)

Mswati III, King of Swaziland, waits to address the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 26, 2012. REUTERS/Ray Stubblebine (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS)

Published May 23, 2015

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Mbabane - The European Parliament this week called on King Mswati’s government in Swaziland to immediately and unconditionally release an imprisoned news editor, a political rights lawyer and two other political prisoners.

A parliamentary resolution also established a monitoring of Swaziland’s human rights abuses in what could be the first step toward international censuring or even trade sanctions toward sub-Saharan Africa’s only unelected national leader.

“Given that their imprisonment relates directly to the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression,” the non-legislative resolution argued for the release of editor Bheki Makhubu and attorney Thulani Maseko.

The pair, judged guilty of contempt of court in 2014 after writing articles critical of Mswati’s judicial system, were sentenced to two years imprisonment.

Other resolutions tabled before the EU parliament this week were passed by a show of hands, including a call on the Zimbabwean government to locate the human rights defender Itai Dzarana, who has mysteriously vanished.

The Swaziland matter was put to a vote, with 579 MPs in favour and six opposed, to a resolution that states: “(The EU) Parliament considers the imprisonment of political activists to be in clear contravention of commitments made by Swaziland under the Cotonou Agreement to respect democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and also under the sustainable development chapter of the (SADC) Economic Partnership Agreement, for which Parliament’s support will depend on respect for the commitments made.”

The Cotonou Agreement, to which Mswati is a signatory, governs trade and economic aid from the EU to Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries through 2020.

Pro-democracy groups in Swaziland have said such accords tying economic assistance to political reform are routinely signed by the government, ensuring eligibility for aid, but are not adhered to.

Aware of this, the EU parliament called upon the European Commission to “monitor Swaziland’s adherence to human rights and to labour and environmental conventions”.

Further, the resolution ordered an investigation be undertaken into Swaziland’s ”serious and systematic violation of labour rights”.

Having lost trade benefits with the US in 2014 for failing to honour commitments toward political reforms and human rights, Mswati told the Swazi parliament earlier this year that his government would seek to expand trade with the EU.

The profitability of Swaziland’s largest export product, sugar, depends on favourable trade terms with the EU.

The resolution also calls on Mswati to release two other political prisoners, Mario Masuku, president of the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), and Maxwell Dlamini, secretary-general of the Swaziland Youth Congress.

Masuku was arrested in May 2014 and placed in solitary confinement for publicly uttering the name of his political party Pudemo, which the government has banned as a terrorist group. Dlamini was arrested with Masuku for wearing a T-shirt bearing Pudemo’s name. They have been denied bail and, after being held for a year, still await trial.

Amnesty International and other human rights groups also characterise Dlamini, Makhubu, Maseko and Masuku as political prisoners.

The Swazi government denies that any political prisoners exist in the country.

Independent Foreign Service

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