Eyewitness account of Swazi police brutality

Account of police detention, Manzini, Swaziland 7 September 2010, Lone Christiansen, member of the board of Africa Contact

We were at the Foundation for Socio Economic Justice's (FSEJ) office. The police knocked. Dumezweni or Goodwill let them in. We were all seated and calm. The police were extremely violent and threatening. I saw them beat up Goodwill and hit Peter and Morten. I saw Peter fall to the ground. A police officer then slapped me hardly across the face. They were angry that a camera was lying around and believed Goodwill had attempted to take photos of them. The whole thing happened within a flash and we were profoundly shocked. We were ordered to take our baggage with us to the car that was to take us to the police station. Morten ended up taking my rucksack and I his suitcase. They complained about this. We were not charged at any time during our ordeal, nor were we allowed to call a lawyer. They took our passports and cell phones. We showed them our tickets out of Swaziland later that day and they took them as well. Morten tried to calm me in Danish and was told in a very threatening voice not to communicate in Danish.

At the police station
In the yard at the police station we were pushed towards a hallway that led to a large room on the one side, that was later used to interrogate us, and to the yard on the other. Due to being shocked at the treatment we had received from the police, I was slow in mounting the stairs with my luggage. A policewoman threatened me with a truncheon and told me to get in line and hurry up. In the hallway, we were stood up against the wall with approximately half a metre between us. They were scolding us and asking us what we were doing in Swaziland and why we been avoiding them. They asked us our names. They took turns in questioning us three Europeans about what we were doing here. I was chocked and very nervous. The police asked me why I was so nervous and I tried to explain to them that I had just been slapped across the face. I received several death threats, e.g. that we would never return home. I also heard Peter receiving death threats. They asked me if Morten or Peter was my husband. When I explained that I was single and didn't have a boyfriend in Swaziland they wanted to know why I didn't have a Swazi boyfriend and whether I didn't like Swazi men. We told them that we wanted to contact our embassy, which we were told we could not. At no point were any charges read to us and we were not allowed to speak to a lawyer at any point during our detention. The police officers were  both verbally and physically very threatening throughout the ordeal. They also seemed a little perplexed as what to do with us, however.

In the yard
After having stood in the hallway for a while, we were taken to the yard down the back stairway. In the yard we were stood together facing a number of uniformed policemen that formed a crescent in front of us. The uniformed police officers were waving their truncheons in the air menacingly. A plain clothed police officer was questioning us about why we were in Swaziland. Unlike the questioning in the hallway, these questions were asked in a more calm and collective voice. Morten and Dumezweni tried on behalf of the group to explain about our project with FSEJ and why we were in Swaziland. Morten told them that we had been beaten. The police officers seemed genuinely surprised by this but tried to suggest that we must have had it coming. They now seemed more calm and less threatening. While we were standing in the yard, Goodwill was taken round a bend where he was yelled at and beaten, although not severely so. At no point were we told what was to happen to us and whether or not we would be allowed to see a lawyer. Dumezweni told me that the police were talking in siSwati about what would happen to him and Goodwill once we (the three Europeans) were  gone. A police officer asked Morten whether he could dance “the Swazi way”, and Morten told him that he could not. He was not made to do so.

In the police van
We were told that they did not have any vacant cells and that we would therefore have to be seated in a police van. All five of us were put in such a van and left there for two or three hours. During this time we had no access to food nor drink. In a police van next to ours several members of South African unions were seated. We could see them being taken for interrogation one at a time. Outside the police officers were discussing how they would be strangling Dumezweni and Goodwill once  us Europeans were out of the way.

Interrogation
I was the first to be sent for interrogation. I requested (in fact I pleaded and begged) to be able to call the Danish embassy but this was flatly turned down. I was interrogated in a large room. One woman and around eight men were present. Three or four of the police men were writing down every word I was saying on note pads. None of those present were physically threatening. I was threatened verbally several times, however. I was e.g. told that I would not be going home unless I told them “everything”. I now believe that this was meant as an indirect death threat. I was too  shaken up to register this at the time, however. Initially, the questions were relatively easy. I was asked my name, what the project was about, my home address and phone number. After a while the questions got more to the point – I was asked who was behind our organisation and project, who we worked with. The police officers became visibly angry and agittated when I told them that we did not work with individuals but with organisations. They also wanted to know why we had participated in the meeting the previous day and what had been said there. I told them that we had been invited by the trade union movement and that we were not aware of the meeting constituting an illegal gathering or having been banned. I told them that having seen 60 or so police officers arriving at the scene, we had been worried about ending up in an uncontrollable situation and had therefore decided to leave through the entrance facing the gardens. As we left we passed several police officers and waved to them. We had therefore obviously not been trying to escape in any way. After several other tougher questions the police told me that we would be allowed to fly out of Swaziland today. I was very relieved and thought that this concluded the interrogation. This was not the case, however, and a series of very tough questions followed. The police told me that I would not be going home today if I didn't answer them truthfully. They were in effect telling me that the rule of law that I knew did not apply in Swaziland. In short: if they were not satisfied with my answers  something nasty would happen to me. The last series of questions we about PUDEMO and the march. After having answered these questions, I was allowed to rejoin the others. The police warned me against ever returning to Swaziland, and threatened me that should I do so, I would experience the “real” Swaziland. I was made to sign a statement about the things I had told them. On the way back to the police van, the woman that escorted me told me that I wouldn't be going home today after all. As this caused me to nearly break down again, she hastily told me that I shouldn't worry, and that we would be going home.
At no time during the interrogation were we offered to speak to a lawyer and my requests to speak to my embassy were also ignored.

The end
I was taken to the police van where Dumezweni and Goodwill were seated. Peter returned from his interrogation some minutes later. We had to wait another 20 minutes or so for Morten to return. Shortly after he had returned, the South Africans in the van next to ours were told to go to the large room where we had been interrogated. We were also taken to the interrogation room shortly afterwards. Here we were asked when our flight was due to leave. We were ordered to check our bags for any missing items, after which all of us had our pictures taken holding signs with our names. Morten, Peter and I were asked to take our luggage down to the police van and we were driven to the airport. Goodwill and Dumezweni remained in police custody.

This account has been sent to the Danish Embassy in Pretoria, the
Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Danish Citizens Information
Desk (Borgerservice).