Human rights under challenge, says US

With no politically motivated killings or incarcerations in 2003, Swaziland is a haven of stability in a troubled continent, say defenders of the country's absolute monarchy. But a report released this week by the US State Department has criticised the country's human rights record, alleging the government "continued to commit serious abuses". "Citizens were not able to change their government peacefully. Police used excessive force on some occasions, and there were reports that police tortured and beat some suspects," the US government's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour said in its annual country report. When contacted by IRIN, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would withhold comment on the report until it officially received a copy from the US government. "We don't conduct foreign policy over the Internet," said a ministry source, referring to the posting of the human rights report on the US State Department's web site. "The government infringed on citizens' privacy rights. The government restricted freedom of assembly and association, and prohibited political activity. The police on several occasions harassed political activists. There were some limits on freedom of movement," the report alleged. One flash-point was a summit King Mswati III hosted for Commonwealth heads of state on the theme of good governance and economic growth. Efforts by banned political parties to draw attention to Swaziland's human rights record were broken up by the police, who ignored court orders to permit peaceful demonstrations. "Government continued to limit freedom of speech and of the press. The law does not provide for freedom of speech or of the press, and the government limited these rights through a formal ban on political parties and occasional harassment of journalists. The government discouraged critical news coverage of the royal family, and journalists practiced self-censorship in regard to the royal family," the country report noted. The police were characterised as generally professional and uncorrupt, but hobbled by a lack of resources. There have been repeated allegations in Swaziland of police using torture to extract confessions from suspects. "When you have no crime labs, no forensics or DNA processing facilities, torture becomes the poor man's way to secure evidence," a police source told IRIN, without admitting to the practice in Swaziland. The US report said 2003 was characterised by a "rule of law" crisis that still persists. Late in 2002, the government overturned Appeal Court rulings it disliked, resulting in the resignation of the Court of Appeal bench. The country still does not have its highest court. "The law provides for an independent judiciary; however, the king has certain judicial powers, and government officials - including the king, the prime minister, the minister of justice and constitutional affairs, and the traditional government of the royal family - challenged the judiciary's independence by attempting to influence and also to reverse court decisions. Government ignored judgments that did not favour them," said the report. "We have a problem with these strangers who want to lead Swazis astray with foreign ideas. We do not know them, but they want to take away the King's powers. Is that not a coup that must be stopped?" a traditional leader told IRIN in an interview. The report also noted that "women occupied a subordinate role in society", adding: "In both civil and traditional marriages, wives were legally treated as minors. The law provides some protection from sexual harassment, but its provisions were vague and largely ineffective."