Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission |14 November 2019
Sibling, friend shed more light on Simon Desnousse’s death
In the 28th hearing of the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) yesterday, Jean-Marc Fostel as the complainant in case 0079 claimed that he was unlawfully detained by the one party state in 1979 at the Union Vale prison and suffered humiliated treatment after his release.
He said that when he was in detention between 1979-80, he learned that a man by the name of Rifned Jumeau had gathered a group of men in a pick-up truck and went searching for his mother at Foret Noire to hurt her.
He claimed that on November 15, 1979 while going home from work, he was stopped by two policemen who gave him a detention order and was also told that the police commissioner wanted to see him. He noted that upon arriving at the Central Police Station, he did not see the commissioner but instead saw some other people who had been arrested, including Gerard Hoareau, Paul Chow, Max Racombo, Lewis Betsy and George Uzice among others he could remember.
Mr Fostel said that they were all rounded up at around 7pm and brought to the Union Vale prison. He claimed that to him he was not being detained for doing something wrong but was being held as a hostage as he learnt from sources that they will not be set free unless “the enemy” decided to stop what they had decided to do. He said that he did not know who the enemy was. He noted no visitors were allowed to see them.
Mr Fostel said that apart from a decent breakfast on the first day, the food that followed after until they were released was very bad and unhealthy. He claimed that once there were live maggots in his food and was told to scrap them off and eat the food as there was no food again to be served. He noted that once a centipede was scooped up in their food, cooked by prisoners at the prison.
He said that at the end of January 1980, he was summoned along with two other detainees for interrogation at the police station with a police officer named Timothy Morin. He was asked about Gerard Hoareau and the leaflets of the ‘Mouvement Pour La Resistance’ (MPR) which were in circulation in the country. As he didn’t answer, he was brought back to the prison.
Mr Fostel said that at one time his health deteriorated and was sent to the hospital and was released from prison after Easter. He further said that he had thought his troubles were over but his nightmare continued.
Having lost his job at the Ministry of Health, finding another job proved difficult as the work places were advised not to employ him. He said that some of his friends fell out with him for fear of being arrested also.
He explained that he was constantly followed around by people he did not know and that turned his life into a nightmare. He also said that as part of the humiliation, he was once arrested on July 4, 1982 for the second time and was stripped naked at the Central Police Station and left in an office for a few hours before being given back his clothes late at night and told to go home.
Mr Fostel, who had thought that Hoffman who had chat up with him was killed because of him and had apologised to the Hoffman family, learned from the commission that him chatting up with Hoffman had nothing to do with his death as he (Hoffman) was a direct target himself.
Mr Fostel had at the start of the session presented three names - A, B and C - to the commission whom he said had saved his life. He noted that three individuals acted as good Samaritans and had warned him about possible attempts on his life or else he would not have lived to tell the tale.
He noted that though released from prison, he had to constantly report to the police station as one of the conditions for his release. Being constantly followed and furthermore due to attempts on his life, Mr Fostel said he had no option, especially after the death of the two men at Sans Soucis in 1983 (Sonny Elizabeth and Michael Hoffman), but to leave for exile in England where he stayed for 30 years after a spell in Australia.
Mr Fostel said that while in England, the Seychelles authority confiscated his passport sent for renewal and being stateless he was granted a British passport. He noted that it was only ten years ago that he was able to come back to Seychelles and had been living here for the past seven years.
He said that he was not an activist but he spoke his mind about what was happening in the country and he presumed that was the reason why he was arrested and detained. He further said that his father was a strong supporter of President Albert Rene but stopped supporting him after hearing him talk about spilling of blood in one of his political speeches and he (Jean-Marc) and the rest of the family followed suit.
Mr Fostel said that President Rene’s ideology matches that of Adolf Hitler based on eliminating all opponents. He noted that while in England he never met up with opposition activists or engaged in their activities.
Mr Fostel said that as the perpetrators are showing no remorse, he is not ready to forgive any of them for the time being. He noted that there must be pre-conditions before granting a pardon.
Case 022
In case 022 of Olivia Vincent, in relation to the death of her brother, Simon Desnousse, who allegedly was blown up in a car at Anse Forbans along with Mike Asher, a South African bomb expert, the complainant Paul Desnousse (the brother of Simon) came to recap the story of his brother’s death after he had left the family house after receiving a phone call and never came back.
He said that upon learning of his brother’s death, he went to see police commissioner James Pillay who showed him some items belonging to Simon who he identified and also a picture of two bodies burnt beyond recognition but he was able to identify that of his brother.
Mr Desnousse said that two police officers, Paul Bedier and David D’Offay, came with him to the family house to collect fingerprints and that was the end of circumstances surrounding the death of his brother. He noted that he never knew Mike Asher and have never met him.
Mr Desnousse gave the commission explicit details of the burnt, headless body of his blown up brother, adding that he also observed part of his fingers which seemed to have been chopped off but were still recognizable as they were not burnt. He noted that the freshly chopped fingers of his brother have marked him as something to be very strange until today. Among the strange things to him also was why the house was not searched if his brother was involved with making bombs.
He said that from the picture shown to him, apart from the car which had been blown apart to pieces, there were some un-exploded grenades next to the car along with some resistance leaflets and found it mysterious that the bodies were still intact and had not blown all over the place as one would expect after a bomb blast.
Mr Desnousse said there is a mystery too surrounding the head which could be seen in photographs shown to him by the police as well as those published in the Nation edition of October 21, 1982, contrary to the edition of October 23 where one body had no head. He further said that at the mortuary, the body of his brother was headless.
He further said that the family, especially his father, for a long time tried to find out how Simon died and learned from a dentist that a piece of metal was removed from his throat during the postmortem. The dentist wanted to know if his brother wore a denture which he did not. He added that a doctor once told one of his aunties that Simon had died a horrible death and from that information the family lived in fear for a long time.
Mr Desnousse said that he doesn’t recall the family being harassed after the incident even though they were afraid. He said that his brother was targeted because of his involvement as a leader in the students’ march against the National Youth Service (NYS) in 1979. He said his brother had previously before his death told him that people were following him.
He said he presumed his brother went to South Africa to seek better pastures as he was refused work in the country and was accommodated by one of his uncles there. He noted that he had no idea what activities he did there.
Mr Desnousse further said that from new information gathered recently, Simon was seen driving into Stevenson Delhomme Road at around 7.30pm the day he left the family home and when the car came out from the aforementioned road, somebody else was seen driving the car. He said that as far as he knew, there were only two bodies in the burnt car. He explained that he knew little of his brother’s involvement in subversive resistance activities.
Mr Desnousse said in 2006 he got a call from his uncle in South Africa who wanted him to bury some of his ashes in the grave of Simon when he died and after chatting with his uncle for a while the call was interrupted and a voice who was listening in, he presumed it was that of President Rene, started to give some advice to him and after said “we had to stop him (Simon) because if we did not more people would have died more than in the coup d’etat”.
As no investigation was done by the police in regards to the incident, the commission has taken upon itself to carry out an investigation.
Case 0148
Christianne Belmont was called in as witness in case 0148 of Edwin Henriette who claimed that she was the person leading a meeting at the Island Development Company (IDC) in1988 that was inquiring into malpractices related to the time Mr Henriette was standing in as the manager of Desroches Island while the permanent manager was on leave.
Mr Henriette had claimed that he was unfairly accused of being irresponsible and incompetent while also not being given the opportunity to discuss what he had considered the main point of contention which was money going missing from the workers’ salaries. According to him, he became so frustrated that he left the meeting and was subsequently sacked without final payment.
In her evidence, Mrs Belmont said she knew that Mr Henriette was employed at IDC and then he left. She noted though that if he said he was sacked, it must have been done in accordance with the law.
As the director of administration at that time, Mrs Belmont further said that she doesn’t remember what went on in that particular meeting after attending so many meetings since 30 years ago. She said she left IDC 20 years ago and she wouldn’t know if the records of that meeting were still available.
Mrs Belmont noted that since she had dealt with so many cases, it was impossible for her to remember any particular case.
Case 022
To round up yesterday’s session, the chairperson of the commission, Gabrielle Louise McIntyre read a statement from Didier Confait as the witness in case 022 of Olivia Vincent concerning the death of her brother Simon Desnousse.
Mrs Vincent had filed before the commission that Mr Confait was present with her family in the mortuary on October 21, 1982 and had assisted in placing Simon’s body in the coffin.
Living in the United Kingdom, Mr Confait, in his statement, gave an account of his friendship with Simon leading to his assassination where he assisted his family at the Mortuary.
He had known Simon personally since 1979 through one of his best friends and together as students they led the students’ demonstration against the National Youth Service (NYS) that same year.
He said Simon was a great artist and was very popular and greatly admired among friends. He further said that as democrats they joined the underground resistance movement (MPR) as there was no free election or freedom of expression under the President Albert Rene regime among other restrictions resulting in oppression.
Mr Confait said that Simon was constantly followed and at one time he left for South Africa and upon his return told him he had met with resistance people over there. He further told them that the postmaster was on the side of the resistance and was to facilitate the collection of underground materials for the resistance movement. Mr Confait noted that even though he told Simon that the postmaster was a spy for the state and would get them killed, Simon told him that the resistance leadership had assured him that the guy was ok.
Mr Confait said that Simon passed by Honeypot Club at around 10.30pm on the day he was killed to inform him and group resistance friends that he was going on a mission and he had to do it alone. He said that it was the following day at work that someone told him that Simon was killed along with a white man who he later learned was South African Mike Asher.
Mr Confait further said that the car in which Simon was killed was laid in full view somewhere at Petit Paris for everyone who passed by to see. He noted that at the mortuary he was able to identify Simon by his thigh as he was a bit muscular as he laid on a tray while Asher’s body was on the floor.
He said that by the look of those bodies, it was clear to him that they had been butchered before they were set on fire. He noted that Simon had no feet and no head and from his throat protruded a hook and wire.
Mr Confait said that other body parts were placed in a black plastic bag while a hand was discovered with only three fingers attached to it, suggesting that the others had been axed. He further said that he, along with other family members, tried their very best to place the body of Simon in the best way possible in the coffin.
He said that even at the church and cemetery on the burial day, the state supporters heckled the family and the large congregation of family friends who had attended. He noted that following other incidents of harassment against him and friends who were in the resistance movement, he went into exile in England until today.
The commission is still calling on people who know something about Simon’s assassination and also about other victims who were murdered or made to disappear to come forward and tell what they know.
Patrick Joubert
