Cancel the tickets to the Bahamas, Prime Minister
The World Citizen Award, which was to be given to the Swazi Prime
Minister for his “exemplary contributions to peace and human rights”,
has received widespread coverage in the Swazi media as well as on
various websites and Barnabas Dlamini was all set to go to the Bahamas
to receive the award according to a statement from the Swazi Government
Press Secretary Macanjana Motsa; “cabinet has approved that His
Excellency the Right Honourable Prime Minister accepts this award”.
Apparently, someone out there concerned about the situation in Swaziland
has a sense of humour, however. According to one of the persons alleged
to be a board member of the World Citizen award that was to have been
presented to Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini, Peter Bell, the
World Citizen award is a hoax. “I regret to say that you and I - among
others - have been victims of a hoax”, Peter Bell commented in an reply
to an email sent to him yesterday by Danish organisation Africa Contact.
The hoax is that the award is not given by the alleged board members of
the World Citizen Award, but that the recipients of the awards are in
effect paying to receive a bogus award. There has as of yet been no
response to the claims that the award is a hoax from the Swazi
government, nor has there been any statements from the World Citizen
Award organisation.
According to Morten Nielsen from Africa Contact, an organisation that
has followed the political developments in Swaziland for over ten years,
”it is unbelievable that the Swazi government would fall for such a hoax
as they must be well aware of their appalling human rights record.
According to the widely recognized Mo Ibrahim Index, that rates
countries according to indicators such as human rights records and
governance, Swaziland ranks a dismal 45th out of 53 African countries in
the category of participation and human rights. Incidentally, this is
just above Zimbabwe”.
Contact information:
Morten Nielsen, Africa Contact, tlf. +45 35 35 92 32, [email protected]
-
Med venlig hilsen - Best Regards
Morten Nielsen
Afrika Kontakt
Bliv medlem af Afrika Kontakt.
Se hvordan på www.afrika.dk
Tilmeld dig vores nyhedsbrev på:
[email protected]
===================================================
Morten Nielsen - Information and Campaigns officer
Africa Contact - Denmark
Wesselsgade 4 kld - DK2200 Copenhagen N - Denmark
===================================================
Phone: (+45) 35 35 92 32 (AC) or
Mobil: (+45) 25 39 65 57
www.afrika.dk
===================================================
Den 28-09-2010 11:52, Philani Ndebele skrev:
*28 September 2010*
* *
*An Open Letter to the Board and Past Recipients of the World Citizens
Awards *
* *
*Dear Board Members and Past Recipients*
* *
We note with dismay, that the World Citizens Award is to honour the
Prime Minister of Swaziland, Mr Barnabas Dlamini in October 2010.
We also note the mission statement of the World Citizens Award as follows:
*/‘The mission of the World Citizen Awards, in its founder's own words,
is to champion human rights and maintain governance, democracy,
equality, international peace and goodwill. It is also committed to
working for people's amelioration through medical missions, outreach
programs and counseling to the deprived, the abused, the humiliated and
the sick’. /*
*/ /*
Prime Minister Dlamini has recently, on two occasions, advocated the use
of a barbaric and banned torture method to be meted out to democracy
activists within and outside of Swaziland who support the call for a
democratic Swaziland.
Furthermore, the Prime Minister was not elected by free and fair
elections. He discharges his powers without a popular mandate, and
solely on behalf of this continents last absolute monarch.
The first time he was withdrawn as PM was when he out rightly undermined
a court ruling over the issue of Kamkhweli and Macetjeni where the
courts ruled against the monarchy and confirmed rights of the people to
their land. Barnabas overruled the court decision and there was global
uproar that led to his recall by the monarchy. Further, he was the
Finance Minister that designed the neo-liberal economic framework that
subjects the people of Swaziland to hunger, in the form of the failed
ESRA (Economic and Social Reform Agenda, Swaziland's own GEAR) when he
was Finance Minister around 1992 before leaving to work for the IMF and
coming back to be Prime Minister.
He is also in the King's Advisory Council, the SNC (Swazi National
Council) which presides over the political strategy of the ruling regime
and drives the system and its abuses, hence making him directly
responsible for the atrocities against our people. During his reign of
terror and that of his system, many disturbing events have happened;
union, student, and banned political parties’ leaders has been detained,
tortured and murdered and this include the murdering of Sipho Jele in
police custody after being arrested on May day for wearing a t-shirt
with the colours of the liberation movement of Swaziland, the People’s
United Democratic Movement-PUDEMO
Many International Human Rights organisations are condemning human
rights violation and lack of democracy in Swaziland, especially
following the arrest, intimidation, detention and forced deportations of
international delegates who had attended the Global Week of Action on
Democracy in Swaziland organised by the Swaziland Democracy Campaign.
Given the above, it would frankly be a travesty if this award were to be
given to this particular individual or indeed to any member of the
Swaziland Government or Royal Elite as it has in the past. The Swaziland
Government does not maintain good governance, is not democratic, does
not practice equality or promote goodwill and peace.
To emphasise this point, the Swaziland Government was severely
criticised in June this year by the International Labour Conference made
up of Employers, Trade Unions and Governments who make up the global
tripartite UN body precisely because it failed to ensure that basic
human and civil rights were practiced or tolerated in Swaziland. If
these questions are being raised by a United Nations body, it surely
must be important to check the credentials of recipients before making a
decision to celebrate their contribution.
Amnesty International has also raised serious concerns about the
behaviour of the Government, and the advocacy of torture by your
potential recipient.
Furthermore, more than 60% of the Swaziland population live on less than
one US dollar per day, while literally millions of dollars are spent
annually on the conspicuous consumption of the Royal Elite. A very large
percentage of the population are in need of HIV/Aids treatment, and
social infrastructure, including health, housing and education remain
chronically inadequate. All of this can be verified.
Under no circumstances does this mean that either the proposed
individual recipient or the Government he represents are committed *‘/to
working for people's amelioration through medical missions, outreach
programs and counseling to the deprived, the abused, the humiliated and
the sick’. / *
* *
If the credibility of the World Citizens Award is to mean anything, then
we would urge its Board Members, and all those of good standing who have
received the award to make their voices heard, and not allow the award
to be given in breach of the most fundamental of human rights.
Finally, can we bring to your attention that if those representing the
World Citizen Awards were to visit Swaziland, and declare themselves
ready *‘/to champion human rights and maintain governance, democracy,
equality, international peace and goodwill’/*/ /they could in fact run
the risk of being forcibly arrested, accused of being ‘illegal invaders’
and deported for contradicting the laws of Swaziland as were visitors in
September this year.
In order to maintain the respect that is rightly given to those who do
enhance a human rights agenda, we ask that you withdraw the offer of an
award to Mr Barnabas Dlamini. To do otherwise would forever diminish the
meaning of your awards, and by association, ensure that it will be seen
by the world as little more than an apologetic devise for human rights
abusers.
*Yours sincerely*
* *
*Stephen Faulkner*
*Ntokozo Mbhele *
* *
*Co Coordinators of the Swaziland Democracy Campaign.*
See attached document giving further details of human rights violations
in Swaziland.
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