Johannesburg, correspondence - A Call to taste bitter. Wednesday, April 13, at midday, the opposition to King Mswati III of Swaziland has called off the protest. Involved, since the repression of the previous day by pro-democracy activists in this small kingdom of 1.2 million people, wedged between South Africa and Mozambique.
"The state has responded with great brutality and people do not feel safe," explained to the secretary general of the union officials, Vincent Dlamini. "When there are two or three people in the streets, they are arrested," he said, before promising: "we'll be back soon." Expected to last three days, the protest movement has never really been able to take off, nipped in the bud by a regime that fears for its survival in these troubled times for dictators around the world.
Before the event announced on the social networking site Facebook, Tuesday, 38 years to the day after the father of the present king had banned political parties, the authorities have methodically taken precautions. The demonstration had been banned. Several leaders of associations and trade unions were arrested preemptively.
The same morning, buses of activists heading to Manzini, the country's economic capital, had been stopped at checkpoints. In the streets, police were everywhere. Journalists were also arrested, then released. It is using batons, water cannons and tear gas that police then dispersed the few hundred demonstrators who tried anyway to get together.
Police reportedly responded to stone-throwing, authorities said. In power since the age of 18, King Mswati III, 42, faces since the beginning of the year, a major protest movement. March 18, several thousand protesters had gathered in Mbabane, the capital of Africa's last absolute monarchy.
Due to a revenue shortfall of regional customs union, the Swazi government is on the verge of asphyxiation budget. He had to call in the IMF which advised him to find savings. The authorities have proposed to lower the salaries of 5% to 10% and then freeze them for three years. Outraged, the unions are demanding that the king first reduce his lifestyle and allocate national assets.
Mswati III likes luxury cars, and used to take 13 women's shop, in Asia and the Gulf countries. The king would have a personal treasure accumulated $ 100 million (70 million). In this country, 10% of the population, mainly members of the royal family, own 60% of the country's wealth, while 69% of Swazis live on less than a dollar a day.
Due to the high rate of AIDS, they die on average at the age of 32 years in Swaziland. The majority of Swazis does not seem ready to challenge the royal institution leased for decades preserved stability in the country. But the opposition is counting on this financial crisis to aggregate the disgruntled forward to reduce the powers of the king and introduce a multiparty democracy.
Swazi unions are supported by their South African neighbors of Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) claims that the regime fell. But his allies now in power, the ANC (African National Congress) and the South African president, Jacob Zuma, remain deaf to this call. Under apartheid, the King of Swaziland had offered protection to many ANC activists who were fighting, then in exile, against the white minority regime.
Sébastien Hervieu 
"The state has responded with great brutality and people do not feel safe," explained to the secretary general of the union officials, Vincent Dlamini. "When there are two or three people in the streets, they are arrested," he said, before promising: "we'll be back soon." Expected to last three days, the protest movement has never really been able to take off, nipped in the bud by a regime that fears for its survival in these troubled times for dictators around the world.
Before the event announced on the social networking site Facebook, Tuesday, 38 years to the day after the father of the present king had banned political parties, the authorities have methodically taken precautions. The demonstration had been banned. Several leaders of associations and trade unions were arrested preemptively.
The same morning, buses of activists heading to Manzini, the country's economic capital, had been stopped at checkpoints. In the streets, police were everywhere. Journalists were also arrested, then released. It is using batons, water cannons and tear gas that police then dispersed the few hundred demonstrators who tried anyway to get together.
Police reportedly responded to stone-throwing, authorities said. In power since the age of 18, King Mswati III, 42, faces since the beginning of the year, a major protest movement. March 18, several thousand protesters had gathered in Mbabane, the capital of Africa's last absolute monarchy.
Due to a revenue shortfall of regional customs union, the Swazi government is on the verge of asphyxiation budget. He had to call in the IMF which advised him to find savings. The authorities have proposed to lower the salaries of 5% to 10% and then freeze them for three years. Outraged, the unions are demanding that the king first reduce his lifestyle and allocate national assets.
Mswati III likes luxury cars, and used to take 13 women's shop, in Asia and the Gulf countries. The king would have a personal treasure accumulated $ 100 million (70 million). In this country, 10% of the population, mainly members of the royal family, own 60% of the country's wealth, while 69% of Swazis live on less than a dollar a day.
Due to the high rate of AIDS, they die on average at the age of 32 years in Swaziland. The majority of Swazis does not seem ready to challenge the royal institution leased for decades preserved stability in the country. But the opposition is counting on this financial crisis to aggregate the disgruntled forward to reduce the powers of the king and introduce a multiparty democracy.
Swazi unions are supported by their South African neighbors of Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) claims that the regime fell. But his allies now in power, the ANC (African National Congress) and the South African president, Jacob Zuma, remain deaf to this call. Under apartheid, the King of Swaziland had offered protection to many ANC activists who were fighting, then in exile, against the white minority regime.
Sébastien Hervieu
- Swaziland protests overwhelmed by violence (14/04/2011)
- Swaziland: How Not to be a Royal (13/04/2011)
- Swaziland Police Beat, Arrest Protesters (12/04/2011)
- Police Officers in Swaziland Squash Rally for Democracy (13/04/2011)
- In Swaziland, heavy crackdown beats back Egypt-inspired protests - Christian Science Monitor (14/04/2011)
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