The Army in Swaziland will
shoot-to-kill suspected rustlers, it has confirmed.
A newspaper in the kingdom
ruled by King Mswati III as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch said the
army had ‘declared war’.
There has been much
evidence in past years that the Army – officially known as the Umbutfo
Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) – the police and game rangers have shoot-to-kill
policies against civilians.
The Swazi Observer reported that in the latest move Captain Thembumusa
Nsibandze of USDF told a meeting that included representatives of the Swazi
Army, the kingdom’s police force and their Mozambican counterparts at Lomahasha
on Tuesday (27 March 2018) a spate of cattle rustling incidents had gone too
far and ‘they will now be unapologetic as they wipe out the syndicate’.
The newspaper added, ‘Nsibandze
clarified that they were not declaring war with any nation, but were declaring
war with criminals, regardless of their nationality.’
It went on, ‘He said as an armed
force, they can only use their guns to bring these criminal activities to an
end. “If the crime syndicate show no intention of stopping their unlawful
activity, we will be forced to shoot-to-kill.”’
Alleged rustlers and poachers in Swaziland have been
the target of shoot-to-kill policies for years. In April 2017, Survival International wrote
to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary
Executions, saying Swaziland ‘appears’ to have a shoot-on-sight policy that
allows game rangers to kill suspected poachers.
In its letter it said, ‘We
say “appears” because usually the policy is not defined by any law, or even
written down. As a consequence, nobody
knows when wildlife officers are permitted to use lethal force against them,
and it is impossible for dependents to hold to account officers whom they
believe to have killed without good reason.’
Stephen Corry, Survival
International Director, said the shoot-on-sight policy directly affected people
who lived close to game parks and guards often failed to distinguish people
hunting for food from commercial poachers.
It is not only alleged
poachers and rustlers who are targeted. In November 2015 soldiers at border
between Swaziland and South Africa, near Mankayane ambushed a truck and riddled
it with bullets, killing the occupant, because it would not stop when
requested. The dead man ‘had his skull and chest split open’, according to a
report in the Times of Swaziland at the
time.
In October 2015, soldiers put 16 bullets into a man at Gege and killed him because he would not stop
his car at a road check. The Swazi Observer, a newspaper in effect
owned by the King, reported at the time that the soldiers, ‘found themselves
with no option but to open fire when a Toyota Tazz bearing foreign registration
numbers was smuggled into the kingdom with the occupants failing to stop when
ordered to do so’.
It added, ‘A total of 16
bullet wounds were found on the deceased’s body. This incident came less than
two weeks or so after soldiers also gunned down another suspected car smuggler near Mshololo not far from Zombodze
Emuva.
In July 2015, it was
reported by Titus Thwala a member of the Swazi parliament that Swaziland
soldiers beat up old ladies so badly they had to be taken to their homes in
wheelbarrows. They were among the local residents who were regularly beaten by
soldiers at informal crossing points between Swaziland and South Africa.
Soldiers have been out of
control in the kingdom for a very long time. In January 2010 they were warned
by the Swaziland Human Rights and Public Administration Commission that their
attacks on civilians amounted to a ‘shoot-to-kill’ policy and this was unconstitutional.
In April 2013, the Open
Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) condemned Swaziland police and state security forces for their ‘increasingly
violent and abusive behaviour’ that is leading to the ‘militarization’ of the
kingdom.
In a report to the African
Commission on Human and Peoples'
Rights (ACHPR) meeting in The Gambia, OSISA said, ‘There are also reliable
reports of a general militarization of the country through the deployment of
the Swazi army, police and correctional services to clamp down on any peaceful
protest action by labour or civil society organisations ahead of the country’s
undemocratic elections.’
See also
SWAZILAND ‘BECOMING MILITARY STATE’
ARMY SHOOT 16 BULLETS
INTO ‘SMUGGLER’
SWAZI SOLDIERS AMBUSH AND
KILL MAN
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