TRNUC hears four complainants and two witnesses |08 January 2020

Members of the commission

In yesterday’s session at its premises at Josephine Cafrine Building at Ile Perseverance, the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) heard four complainants, three of whom were heard held behind closed doors, and two witnesses.

Case 0094 Ramesh Naidoo

Wills Victor was the first to take the stand as a witness in case 0094 of Ramesh Naidoo who last year (2019) had claimed before the commission that he was wrongly imprisoned in the 1990s for trying to destroy papers covering up tax evasion by Khrisna Mart following a break-in at customs division by two persons whereby five charges were laid against him even though he had nothing to do with the break-in. Following his release from prison, Mr Naidoo claimed that he was constantly followed by state security and he identified Mr Victor as the person who had warned him that he was being followed.

Mr Victor, a taxi driver since 1976, said he had no recollection of informing Mr Naidoo that he was being followed by the state security as he never knew Mr Naidoo at that time until he (Mr Naidoo) opened his shop at Pointe Larue some years later. He noted that he was not an informant of the state security but he did call the police, some thirty years ago, upon seeing two suspicious persons he knew (Guy Charles and Camille Mathiot) at night removing documents from the taxation office and they were apprehended at the Freedom Square and arrested.

Mr Victor confirmed that he did not see Mr Naidoo at the time of the incident but only learned later that he was among the persons charged for trying to destroy tax documents. He said that the police had never approached him for any evidence on the incident until today though he had given them his name. He claimed he never had any conversation with Mr Naidoo surrounding the incident.

Case 0144 Vincent Jeannevole

Vincent Jeannevole, who had appeared before the commission last year as a witness, was yesterday a complainant, claiming he was victimised by the Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) during his time in the army.

He said that upon leaving school in December 1978 at the age of seventeen, he joined the army two months later (February 1979) and went straight into hard induction training on Long Island with Tanzanian soldiers.

After six weeks induction training, he along with 24 other recruits were transferred to the Pointe Larue army camp before some of them, excluding him and three other recruits – Robert Ernesta, Serge Benstrong and Robert Morel – were transferred to the Exile Army camp for commandos training. He said that four of them were supposed to go overseas for officer’s training.

Mr Jeannevole said that the Seychellois soldiers, at that time of the era of the students strike and the mercenary attack, were made to work day and night to safeguard the country and residences of high profile personnel, where they didn’t get to see their families for a long time as they were not granted permission for home leave.

Following his good performances in the local training, he said was selected along with seven other soldiers for pre-cadets officer’s training in Santiago, Cuba in 1980. After eleven months of successful training in Cuba in September 1981, he said instead of being presented with his officer’s rank, he was posted to safeguard the residence of a top ranking army official among other strategic places during the mercenary attack.

Mr Jeannevole said that he was posted to work at the Union Vale army camp and that was where he started to get into trouble with his superiors where he claimed that for no reason at all he was summoned in 1982 to three months, not far apart, as a prisoner on Coetivy and again on Platte Island.

He said after completion of his sentence on Platte Island in November 1982, he was transferred to work as a state security at State House until 1984 when there was a fall-out again with his superiors and he was locked up in a cell at the Bel Eau army camp for some ten days and later for two months court-martialled on long Island in April 1984 and then released from the army on June 16, 1984.

Mr Jeannevole said that he never knew all that time what he had done to endure such treatment until later when he was told that he had sworn at ex Minister Joseph Belmont, something he claimed he never did apart from using the words ‘Minister Bullshit’ while joking with his women friend who was working at the office at National House and he was warned that somebody was inside and that maybe the person could have heard the word. He said he didn’t mean what he was saying and that he didn’t even knew Mr Belmont. He noted that he had never faced the army disciplinary committee or faced trial before a court-martial.

He said that following his release from the army, he was victimised and was not able to get employment anywhere until he took it upon himself to go into the ‘taksi pirat’ business in 1997 after a short spell at the Indian Ocean Tuna Ltd. He noted that he was also framed by the state security to sell out guns to a businessman and was also once kidnapped and brought to the Grand Police Prison on the grounds that he was in possession of a pistol.

Mr Jeannevole also claimed that in July 1998 he finally managed to get an accounting job at the Ministry of Land Use and Habitat and after four months and upon being seen by the then Minister Dolor Ernesta, he was evicted from his job for no reason.

He claimed that he was not given his officer’s rank because he was accused of being a drug user, something he denied but stated that the Tanzanian soldiers that came to Seychelles were responsible for the majority of the drugs that were entering the country. He alleged that all incidents happening to him at that time were aimed at preventing him from getting his officer’s rank.

Before ending, Mr Jeannevole had a complaint against the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), alleging that one of its journalists had insulted him because he had refused to give an interview after his hearing session as a witness last year. He claimed that he has no immunity outside the commission and that was the reason why he had refused to give the interview.

Case 062 Josianne Camille

Retired army Sergeant Major, Claude Cedras, was a witness in case 062 of Josianne Camille in relation to the death of her brother, Wilset Camille, who died at the Bel Eau army camp on September 1, 1985. Ms Camille had told the commission last year (2019) that Mr Cedras was with her brother while following the same training at the Barbarons army camp in 1985.

Mr Cedras explained he and Mr Camille were in the same group of recruits on training at the Barbarons army camp but he remembered that he fell sick and was taken to hospital. He noted that on that day when Mr Camille fell sick, they were not doing any physical training but only economic activities. He further said that he was much involved in the kitchen as his economic activity but he was not sure what type of economic activity Mr Camille was involved in that day.

Mr Cedras said that at that time the normal army physical training was held at the Grand Police army camp and the Barbarons army camp was used for economic activities apart from the normal half-hour morning run. He claimed he had not known Mr Camille well in the short period of time and noted that he did not even see when he fell sick but only heard of what had happened to him.

He said he was not aware of nor did he witness any physical mistreatment of soldiers in the army though he cannot speak on behalf of other soldiers who might have different views. He also told the commission that nobody had approached him to alter his testimony prior to coming to the commission.

Patrick Joubert