Editorial

The Worse Criminals Are Now In The Police Force

Until very recently organized crimes were being planned from the comfort of State House. Everyday of the week criminals and gangsters were driving up and down in state hired vehicles, to and from the highest office in the land to execute their dirty deeds. They enjoyed the full protection of the State. They planned murders, tortures, robberies, extortions, burglaries and other atrocities from their offices just next door to our President of the Republic. However, all this have apparently now changed. President Michel has succeeded in ridding State House of the mobsters and gangsters. They are now operating from an army camp and their illicit activities reduced to a minimum.

However, we cannot afford to keep our eyes off them. The American Embassy in Mauritius, the British High Commission office in Victoria and the European Union in Brussels are still all well aware of their illicit activities and what was going on previously at State House. Even the Chinese Foreign Minister who allegedly had his precious briefcase stolen whilst staying at the exclusive five star Ste. Anne Resort knows about the existence of these bandits. All these people know exactly where the perpetrators are now located. This newspaper has made it its life long mission to expose those criminals operating under the cover and protection of the State. Today they roam our streets with impunity. They greet us, we greet them; they say “hello” and we say “hello” back to them. If only we knew!

The bad news is that the Police Force has now taken over the mantle from the State House “Tonton Macoute” Security Unit. Currently the worse criminals on the island are operating from the headquarters of the Police Force in Victoria and in collusion with the highest police officers in the land. They are well connected and well protected. Convicted criminals are paid by the police and are used as key witnesses for the prosecution in court; thousands of rupees are paid to act as “agent provocateurs” for the police. These people are told to use the money to buy drugs off unsuspecting drug dealers and sometimes even going to the extent of framing innocent individuals. It is a well known fact that a significant few in the police force are also involved in criminal activities.

Certain members of the Force have taken to shooting people, torture, extortion, corruption and leaking sensitive information to criminal elements to avoid capture. Remand prisoners’ rights are being abused and money extorted from their relatives in return for their safety during their time of custody. All this is happening with the full knowledge of the people in authority; Judges, Senior Police Officers, Ministers, Superintendent of Prison and the likes. They seemed unable or unwilling to do anything to stop the carnage and catalogue of abuse taking place right under their noses. Seychelles is rapidly descending into anarchy and chaos and the very people entrusted to protect the rights of the people prefer to look away and condone the atrocious acts of the perpetrators for fear of losing their high paid jobs and the life of luxury an comfort they enjoy here, which they would otherwise not enjoy in their own respective third world countries. Apathy not sympathy is the order of the day.

Only last week a young man of Italian origin was brought to Court after his lawyer had made a habeous corpus application. His lawyer claimed that the young man has been brutally and repeatedly beaten by a prison warden by the name of Dogley whilst on remand awaiting trial. Dogley, it seems, is the savage who repeatedly beat and torture inmates at Montagne Posee prison with impunity. Even though many complaints have been lodged against him, he still keeps his job at Montagne Posee prison and continues to terrorise the inmates. The young man claimed that Dogley had assaulted him repeatedly with a polythene pipe causing bruises all over his tummy, back, legs and the sole of his feet. To the great dismay of everybody present, the Judge instead of showing compassion and sympathy, asked the lawyer the most preposterous question: “How do you know if your client had not scratched himself all over his body in order to get bail?” This shocked everybody in Court on that day. One would think that we were in a Court in Zimbabwe instead of Seychelles! This is not an isolated incident. It is common place at the prison at Montange Posee, at the Victoria Central Police Station, at the ADAMS at New Port and at other police stations in the country. It is criminality and thuggery at its worse with the enforcers being themselves the creator of the very problem they were expected to solve.