Residents angry after political violence

Angry residents of an informal settlement outside the central commercial town of Manzini have declared their neighbourhood a no-go area for Swazi police following a clash at the weekend between the security forces and political demonstrators. "The police invaded our homes [on Saturday] and beat up anyone they found inside. It is best they stay away to allow us to take care of our own affairs," said Philemon, a resident of Mbhuleni, a ramshackle township with mud lanes and a population of several thousand near the campus of the University of Swaziland. The decision, taken at a meeting on Sunday of Mbhuleni residents, did not include a game plan to bar police from the community, and seemed more a symbolic protest against police tactics in suppressing stone-throwing activists demonstrating against the absolute rule of King Mswati III. News reports said shots were fired from the township in response to police teargas during the clashes on Saturday, but a leader of the Swaziland Youth Congress (SWAYOCO), the organisers of the rally, denied their members had used firearms. SWAYOCO, the youth wing of the country's largest, albeit banned, political party, the People's United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), held the rally in Mbhuleni as part of a series of countrywide demonstrations. Royal Swaziland Police in full riot gear arrived to disperse the gathering and were pelted with stones. According to reports, police responded by firing teargas canisters, some of which landed in a shopping complex and among onlookers. Witnesses said two or three gunshots were heard from the township in reply, possibly from shotguns. The Times of Swaziland quoted Senior Police Superintendent Jomo Mavuso as saying he saw two men shooting at police with 9mm pistols. Riot police then chased suspected activists into Mbhuleni, where mud and stick shacks and cinderblock dwellings were broken into and their occupants allegedly beaten. IRIN was unable to get a comment from the police. PUDEMO leader Mario Masuku, who was present at the rally, was detained but later released. He said PUDEMO would mount a demonstration at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Assembly, which begins on Monday at Ezulwini, five km east of the capital, Mbabane, to discuss governance and development issues. "Government has banned all political parties and all political meetings. This is undemocratic, and it flies in the face of all international human rights and good governance accords that Swaziland has signed," Masuku told IRIN.