Human Rights abuses sponsored by State House
WE can safely say that the State House is now directly involved in human rights violations against the people of Seychelles under the guise of anti-drug enforcement. This is why the President wanted to amend the Constitution to provide the army with powers similar to the police force. The National Assembly controlled almost entirely by LDS gave the President what he wanted earlier this year so that he could put his plans into action. The President started by disbanding the ANB. The new unit/agency is operating clandestinely and it is nicknamed IBOU by the public. This involves the use of a special operations unit from the State House's protection team similar to a 'Tonton Macoute' style operation created in 1959 by the Dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier in Haiti.
The assaults on the victims started on Sunday 7 August 2022, when a group of military personnel, a police officer to legitimize the operation, and members of the President's security apparatus raided a house in the upper part of Pte. Larue. The aggressors were all covered up to hide their identity, however, they were identified when they spoke and their physicality is also known to the people they attacked. And they also made clear that they were on a mission from State House.
They burst into the house of the parents of both Dario and Fabio and took the occupants hostage just past 7 pm on Sunday, with guns being pointed at the inhabitants and screaming obscenities in the presence of children and also elderly people. They never introduced themselves and/or revealed their identity of who they were and what was their motive for being at the house. They left at around 11 pm after searching the entire premises. They went back on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday they made another appearance, this time at 5 am, and took over the houses for three days, until late on Friday 12 August 2022. During the occupation by the IBOU team, the occupants of the houses had to vacate and go live with family members leaving them fully in charge of their properties. They killed dogs and broke into the houses' ceilings when they could have used the trap doors. They terrorized the children and the women who are living in these houses during the absence of the men who are incarcerated.
On Monday at 7 pm they went to La Louise and raided three houses belonging to the same family situated in the same compound. They broke down the doors and furniture and physically assaulted anyone who spoke unfavorably to them. They ordered the Mont Fleuri Police to block the main road at the Chilli Bar, which caused inconvenience to the public causing mayhem for several hours on the street and some visitors from the UAE got caught in the disorder. The operation was amateurish by all accounts according to eyewitnesses.
They got nothing from the raid at La Louise they drove back up after they had left and were looking around for something in the yard according to the neighbors. They eventually went away taking one of the inhabitants with them. They dropped him off at the Mont Fleuri Police Station and asked that he be held in custody and ordered the Police to charge him with resisting arrest. The Police protested and they just said to place him in a cell. He was released the next day without charge because no evidence was provided by those who had arrested him.
They raided a house at Pascal Village and the inhabitants there were physically assaulted; at Roche Caiman they held people at gunpoint under the veranda while they search the houses without the owners being present. When they had said at La Louise that they will plant drugs if they have to...
This newspaper broke the news of the raids being conducted across the country on its Facebook page on Wednesday 10 August in the morning. This forced a statement from the State House late that same day in a press communiqué about Cabinet Business, and by then the SBC had also picked up on the story. The Seychelles Independent Newspaper (SIN) provided SBC with the details of the story with the telephone numbers of the victims. The Police were contacted for their comments but were unwilling to talk to the press because they had not engineered these operations.
Finally, the Vice-President came out to speak and he was not at all truthful in his statement to the Nation broadcasted during the SBC news at 8 pm. The incidents have been reported to the Human Rights Commission and an investigation is being conducted.
This new approach to anti-drug enforcement has created confusion in the country; one would have expected the Commissioner of Police to speak if, as VP Afif said, it was the Police Force conducting the operations. Or the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Roy Fonseka who is mandated with the Portfolio, and strangely enough there are allegations that his son is also involved in the operations. These operations by IBOU last week look more like an exercise to intimidate and harass people thought to be in the drug trade and it was not based on any intelligence. The President himself must now address this messy situation that he has helped to create - he owes an explanation to the people of Seychelles.
Comments
Post a Comment