Times Of Swaziland: WILL SADC SEND ITS TROOPS?

WILL SADC SEND ITS TROOPS?
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Welcome Dlamini on 22/10/2022 06:48:00


On Sunday, September 25, 2022, the Times SUNDAY newspaper’s front page had the
headline ‘SADC coming to address security challenges’.
Some readers, particularly those advocating for political reforms, shared strong
sentiments regarding the article’s content, which brought to their attention
that the 42nd Ordinary Summit of SADC Heads of State and Government, which was
held in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ON August 17, 2022, referred to
the Eswatini situation as a security challenge. This was based on the Government
of the Kingdom of Eswatini having presented, to the summit, a brief report on a
‘security situation’ and not a ‘political issue’. SADC then took a
resolution on the basis of this report; and the resolution was to mandate the
chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation to
convene an extraordinary summit of the Organ Troika plus Eswatini, whose date is
yet to be determined.
The extraordinary summit is aimed at finding a peaceful and lasting solution to
the security challenges facing the country. The feeling among the advocates for
political reforms is that SADC’s visit to Eswatini should be for political
reasons, not security concerns. Their view is that SADC should push government
and the country’s authorities to convene a political dialogue. However,
government’s stance is that there are existing security challenges that are
preventing the convening of the much-envisaged political dialogue.
Threats
Countless acts of arson, intimidation, coercion, threats and random killing of
the State security officers are the security challenges cited as reason for not
convening the political dialogue. Should the SADC Organ Troika make a similar
determination as that of government on the challenges facing the kingdom, the
most likelihood is to recommend the deployment of troops. Could events of the
past weeks cement government’s position on the country’s situation?
A new wave of acts of deadly violence has been witnessed these past two weeks.
Three security officers (two police officers and one Correctional Services
officer) have been shot dead this week and these killings have been attributed
to a group that identifies itself as the Swaziland International Solidarity
Forces. Some members of this group have been identified as reneged officers of
His Majesty’s Correctional Services. Besides these three murdered officers,
there’s another army officer who was killed in front of his family on
Wednesday evening but it is not clear whether this is linked to the ongoing
unrest. Another army officer escaped with a gunshot wound when he was shot at
while in his homestead at LaMgabhi last week Friday and this incident has been
associated with the works of the Solidarity Forces.
Claimed
There are now at least seven security officers who have been killed and their
deaths claimed by the Solidarity Forces. Alongside the deaths are recent arsons
attacks on tinkhundla centres. The recent violent acts prompted the Prime
Minster, Cleopas Sipho Dlamini, to call a press conference where he
unequivocally condemned all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism. “No act
of violence in whatever form can be justified, regardless of the motive.
Government calls upon all emaSwati to, individually and collectively, stand up
against terrorism. Someone out there knows these people and can help end the
violence. Let us stop hiding these criminals,” he said. Government, the PM
said, will continue to put more effort in protecting emaSwati against these
terrorist elements. “We will not hesitate to bring to book anyone found guilty
of these activities and will not rest until each and every one of them is
brought to justice. We cannot allow the senseless killings of innocent emaSwati
to continue unabated,” the PM further said. He went on to condemn what he said
was “the irrational arson attacks on tinkhundla centres. What these criminals
and their masters do not understand is that Tinkhundla is more than just a
physical structure; it is a ‘political system’ that is entrenched in the
political fabric of emaSwati.”
The SADC extraordinary summit plus Eswatini will most certainly not ignore this
latest wave of violence. With the backdrop of the report that was given by the
Eswatini Government during the summit in the DRC, SADC might be convinced that
indeed there is a security challenge in the kingdom.
Concluded
The government, judging by the PM’s posture during Wednesday’s press
conference, has concluded that the kingdom is faced with acts of terrorism. Just
as SADC did, and continues to do, in Mozambique where troops from the regional
bloc have been deployed to deal with an insurgency, we could just witness the
same approach when it comes to Eswatini. Will SADC reach the same determination
of Eswatini being faced with acts of terrorism? One would first need to
understand how terrorism is described.
Terrorism is basically associated with the use of violence to achieve a desired
goal. However, having a generally acceptable definition of terrorism has been a
subject of controversy due to issues such as a basis for when the use of
violence (directed at whom, by whom, for what ends) is appropriate and
legitimate. Even in the United Nations (UN), a consensus has hardly been reached
as to what terrorism should mean. However, the UN Security Council in its
Resolution 1566 of 2004 defines terrorism as ‘criminal acts, including against
civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or
taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general
public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population
or compel a government or an international organisation to do or to abstain from
doing any act.’ The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2018) stated
that, in broad terms, terrorism can be understood basically as a means of
coercion which threatens to or uses violence to spread fear and hence, achieve
certain political or ideological goals, which are quite different from normal
violence.
Agreed
It is agreed that terrorism has continued to be a global phenomenon affecting
societies, countries, regions, and continents of the world, with devastating
effects on both individuals and the State. It is for that reason that the UN
Security Council, in its resolution, recalls that criminal acts, including
against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily
injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in
the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a
population or compel a government or an international organisation to do or to
abstain from doing any act, which constitute offences within the scope of and as
defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism,
are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political,
philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or other similar nature,
and calls upon all States to prevent such acts and, if not prevented, to ensure
that such acts are punished by penalties consistent with their grave nature.
A research on ‘Violent Transformations in Africa: Coup d’Etat, Civil Wars
and Terrorism in the Crisis of Democracy’, noted how Africa has recurrently
been characterised by political instability and attempts of coup d’état,
civil wars and, in the last few years, terrorism, generally of Islamic matrix.
Since 2010, more than 40 coups d’états have reportedly been carried out. In
many cases, they are recorded as having succeeded, leading as their main
consequence to rapid political change. It is reported that at the same time, the
growing crisis of democracy in Africa – as all the international rankings show
– led to civil wars and forms of protests, and to the formation of terrorist
groups throughout the continent, with ties to international terrorist
organisations such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. The latter point could
ring closer to home when it comes to the Eswatini situation, as the country has
seen the emergence of groups with terrorist tendencies, witnessed forms of
protests and even insinuations of a civil war all caused by the calls for
political change. But the research also notes that political institutional
changes do not tell the whole history.
Adopt
It notes that despite the efforts made in the 1990s by many African States to
adopt democratic constitutions and regimes, the number of coups d’état and
political violence have not diminished, registering a significant increment in
the last few years. “African democracies became formal structures which
respect human rights, the right to expression and political competition;
nevertheless, their essence, in many cases, maintained the characteristics of
authoritarian regimes, without any chance for a political change carried out
through formal electoral processes,” the research points out. This salient
observation is not to be ignored. As Eswatini goes through turbulent times, the
fact that in other countries where coups d’état and political violence has
been used to achieve political change, the opposite has been achieved. The
situations have turned out to be worse than before the change. As we ponder on
this, we await the SADC Organ Troika to decide on the Eswatini situation; will
they send the SADC Standby Force?