1977 COUP
SOON AFTER 1977 COUP, SDP, LEADERS JAILED
Soon after the June 5, 1977 coup d’Etat, a crowd of 450 people gathered at the Britannia Hotel on Praslin, where the blue fl ag was hoisted; a bid to revive the party, put out of action by the coup. The Democratic party supporters on Praslin rallied behind restaurateur Dan Payet and Mahe Democrat Owen Hoareau (brother of Gerard Hoareau, later assassinated in London).
According to the weekly paper “Weekend Life”, banned in 1979, the crowd of 450 DP supporters heard stirring speeches from Mr Payet and Mr Hoareau who called on followers into peaceful opposition to the government. The party branch officials were also elected amid rapturous applause. Inside the meeting were several plainclothes policemen and outside were a handful of soldiers from the Seychelles Liberation Army (SLA) who were there as observers.
Weekend Life wrote; “There were no interferences during the meeting and there were no trouble-makers as the whole exercise went off as smoothly as a church service”.
Mr Owen Hoareau said the purpose of the meeting was to prepare the party peacefully for eventual participation in future elections in Seychelles. “Our party has not disappeared. There has not been an election that has proved that the party is not in the majority in Seychelles. Every election has been won by an SDP majority. It is not because another party takes power by another means that this majority disappears. The majority is still there and we have to accept it.
Mr Dan Payet said in many respects Praslin seemed to be neglected and there had been injustices which needed to be opposed. He pointed out that Radio Seychelles had refused to publicise the meeting, despite the fact that President Rene has said the radio was for “the people.”
A few days after the Britannia meeting, both Mr Payet and Hoareau along with all 10 members elected to the party branch committee were summarily arrested, but subsequently released without charge. The stage had been set for single-party rule and no other political party or dissenting group was to be tolerated.
Mr Payet and Hoareau werehowever re-arrested in April 1978, along with a group of 19 other opponents of the new SPUP/SPPF regime, amid claims that a coup attempt had been foiled by government. At the time, President Rene, accompanied by one of his ministers was visiting China and North Korea and the detainees were held under special Presidential decree- “ at the president’s pleasure”. In that case the 18 men and three women were held at Union vale for three months. An army garrison was also set up there, used in 1979 to guard over 80 detainees, including Gerard Hoareau in the wake of the anti- NYS student demonstrations.
The 1978 round-up of dissidents was to be the first of many, real or imaginary, carried out by the SPPF during the 15 years of one-party rule
Source: LNSW 7-9-09