Rights groups forced to hold protest outside kingdom

A human rights rally will be held outside Swaziland, after security forces blocked a planned gathering at the weekend by pro-democracy groups who intended to condemn the government's draft constitution. "We will now restage [the event] in another country that recognises human rights," said Kislon Shongwe, an official with the banned political party, People's United Democratic Movement. South Africa or Mozambique were being considered. The human rights day commemoration was co-sponsored by the Swaziland Agricultural and Plantation Allied Workers Union (SAPAWU), a member of the Swaziland Democratic Alliance - an umbrella body of human rights, labour groups, as well as banned political parties - and the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA), a civil society organisation that is challenging the palace-sponsored draft constitution. "This is a remembrance of the struggles the people of Swaziland have been through since the unlawful repeal of the Independence Constitution of 1968, which was unconstitutionally abrogated by His Majesty King Sobhuza II in 1973, denying the nation its fundamental rights and freedoms," SAPAWU said in full-page newspaper advertisements placed the day before the event was to have taken place in the eastern agricultural town of Big Bend. The union and NCA said government censorship of the state media had compelled them to purchase advertising space to deliver their message. A spokesman said the Swazi police did not permit the human rights event to go ahead because gatherings of a political nature are banned in the kingdom. Organised political opposition to royal rule is also forbidden by royal decree. Government sources said the event was viewed as an attempt to embarrass King Mswati on the eve of his 36th birthday celebrations on Monday. Organisers denied the allegation and said the celebration, which was normally held in October, had been scheduled for the week of 12 April because it was the anniversary of the abrogation of the country's constitution, and the beginning of a national state of emergency, now in its 31st year. They declared 12 April as African Human Rights Day in Swaziland and said it would be commemorated annually. In 2000, pro-democracy groups met in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa after the Swazi government banned political meetings. The convention produced the "Nelspruit Declaration", calling for the peaceful transformation of government from a monarchy to a democracy. The NCA had intended to announce its plan of instituting court action to block the new draft constitution at the human rights day event. King Mswati has said he would decree the new constitution this year, but in November 2002 the Court of Appeal ruled that the king had no power to decree laws. The government then said it would ignore the Appeal Court ruling on the king's powers, after which the Court of Appeal bench resigned in protest. Swaziland's highest court has not functioned since. The NCA intends challenging the draft constitution on the basis of the 2002 Court of Appeal ruling.