SNP PARTY COMMUNIQUE ON EVENTS OF 3 OCTOBER 2006 CONCERNING THE RIGHT TO ESTABLISH A PRIVATE RADIO STATION

The Seychelles National Party (SNP) deplores the heavy-handed action of the government against its leadership and members on 3 October 2006 which resulted in the hospitalisation with head injuries of its leader, Wavel Ramkalawan, who is also the country’s Leader of the Opposition, and executive committee member Jean-Francois Ferrari, and arrest and detention in police custody of its secretary-general, Roger Mancienne.

Following continued pro-government bias by the state-financed broadcast media, the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), made especially obvious since the inauguration of Mr James Michel as President in 2004, and which contributed to the results of the July 2006 presidential election, the SNP leader in August announced a fund-raising drive from its supporters to establish a radio station, provisionally called Radio Freedom, over which the SNP could make its voice heard. In retaliation, the government tabled an amendment to the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Act which would, if passed, deny political parties and religious organisations the right to establish private radio stations. The target was obviously the SNP.

The Bill was listed for debate in the National Assembly on Tuesday 3 October 2006. The SNP called on its supporters to come to the National Assembly during the debate to sign a petition calling on the President not to sign the amendment into law if it was voted through. During the debate on the Bill, Ramkalawan made it clear that it was only the bias of the SBC that had prompted him to call for funds for a private radio station, and that his preferred option would have been a free, fair and independent SBC.

As supporters of the SNP arrived outside the National Assembly in response to the invitation to sign the petition, the security forces, principally the anti-riot Special Support Unit (SSU) of the police, promptly intervened and assaulted those present with truncheons in order to disperse them. Onlookers state that no time was given to them to disperse after they had been requested to do so. Several supporters, including aged women, were assaulted. Jean-Francois Ferrari was set upon by a number of SSU officers within the precincts of the Assembly and repeatedly assaulted about the head suffering several deep cuts to the head. Clothes were torn off a woman supporter by the SSU.

Ramkalawan, who had left the Chamber and come to the main door of the Assembly building was, together with the lawyer of the SNP, speaking to senior officers of the regular police on the front steps of the building on how to manage the crowd when he was set upon by SSU personnel, dragged back into the Assembly building and in turn assaulted by the SSU, suffering a deep cut to the head. It was only due to the intervention of Ramkalawan’s security personnel that he and Ferrari were prevented from sustaining further injury and brought to the hospital. They were both immediately hospitalised for treatment and observation. Those present were dispersed by tear gas without having had the opportunity to complete signing the petition.

As a result of the action of the police a larger crowd gathered outside the National Assembly as debate on the Bill continued in the absence of the SNP members who had taken up position in the crowd outside. After a stand-off of some two hours the SSU engineered an incident, driving into the crowd with a police Land Rover and knocking an SNP district representative to the ground When the crowd responded to this unprovoked attack by shouts and stones thrown at the side of the vehicle, the SSU attacked and dispersed those present with indiscriminate and excessive use of tear gas and rubber bullets. So wild was the firing that the office of the Cable & Wireless manager across the road received a direct hit by a canister and the Deputy British High Commissioner, who was an onlooker, also had a canister land at her feet.

The crowd dispersed into the centre of town, where one or two shop windows of state-owned Seychelles Marketing Board (SMB) were smashed, before gathering outside the Central Police Station to demand the release of Mancienne. It eventually dispersed at about 5:30 p.m. at the request of the leadership of the SNP. Mancienne was detained in police custody overnight and both Ramkalawan and Ferrari were kept in hospital for observation. Several supporters of the SNP were injured during the day’s police actions, some from rubber bullets, others through the inhalation of tear gas, and reported to hospital and private clinics for treatment.

Mancienne was released this morning. Ramkalawan and Ferrari were likewise discharged from hospital after having been informed that they had been under arrest whilst in hospital. Neither had previously been informed of that fact. All three have been bailed to report to the Central Police Station on 10 October 2006 at 9.00 a.m. Their bail bond suggests that they face charges of Unlawful Assembly

In its coverage of the incident on the evening of 3 October the SBC was content to show some pictures of the SSU in action and a sole interview with the Commissioner of Police. In his interview he made a number of misleading statements designed simply to promote his version of the incidents In particular, the SNP categorically denies the Commissioner’s excuse that Ramklalawan was asked to undergo a body search at the Assembly and that it was his refusal that prompted the assault on him. Ramkalawan is a member of the National Assembly with full privileges within the precincts of the Assembly such that he should never have been asked to undergo such a search there. In any event, no such request was ever made to him or to any other SNP National Assembly members, or to the public in the gallery. No attempt was made by the SBC to interview any of the opposition leaders who were present, or indeed members of the public who witnessed the incident or who were themselves assaulted. This, in itself, clearly shows the merit in the call of the SNP for a better balanced SBC and, until this is a reality, for it to have the possibility of presenting another view of events in the country through its own radio station.

The SNP calls on its supporters not to give up the fight for Radio Freedom. It asks for independent enquiries to be held:

•          on the role of the SBC and the means that this organisation should take to ensure more balanced reporting of national events, with appropriate facilities given to the opposition to air views divergent from those of the government, and

•          into the actions taken by the security forces during the events of the 3 October 2006.

Copyright 2006: Seychelles Weekly, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles
October 6, 2006