Three complainants and two witnesses appear before the TRNUC |13 June 2020
Three complainants and two witnesses appeared before the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) yesterday as the commission wrapped up its three-week hearing sessions for this month.
A third witness, Dr Maxime Ferrari, had to be rescheduled as he was not able to make it in the first hearing in relation to Case 081: Mats Deutschmann who had claimed that his family was victimised and was robbed of their tourism establishment, the Flying Dutchman Hotel, on Praslin in 1981, through forced compulsory acquisition by the government.
Case 0213: Christine Dias
In setting out her complaint through SKYPE, 47-year-old Christine Dias, living in the United Kingdom (UK) claimed she was subject to constant harassment by the state through its security officers because her family did not support the party in power then.
Ms Dias claimed that at the very tender age of thirteen she was followed around, mostly everywhere, by people working with state security in cars with plate numbers S1122 and S232, and she had to be always on the run. She alleged that one day she had to run for her life and make her way back home from town to Bel Air where she was living, after people in a car followed her down from the Bel Air cemetery to town and back. She added that in another incident, she injured herself badly after trying to flee from the people following her.
Fearful of her life, she noted that her mother sent her into exile to the UK in 1989 where she had stayed for the last thirty-one years. She claimed that all members of her family were followed around by those same people working for the state security. She also claimed that her family, especially her mother who was partly disabled from suffering through an illness, did not receive any assistance from the government.
Ms Dias also claimed that one of her uncles was arrested in November 15, 1979, at the pleasure of the then President Albert Rene and was detained for ten months without charge at the Union Vale prison, along with other political detainees. She stated that she came to Seychelles after the multi party system in 1994 to see her family. She said she wanted to know why her family was victimised and for what reasons she was followed around.
Case 0242: Doreen Bouchereau
In her complaint, Doreen Bouchereau claimed that she was attacked in her house by prisoners who were supposed to be in jail. She said that it all started in February 2002 when she and another colleague went to the Belonie school at around 9am and upon locking her jeep, a car with four men suddenly parked behind her and one mockingly told her that for a long time they had been trying to find out who was the owner of the jeep. She claimed that she sought advice on the incident and her brother told her to report the incident to the police if it was repeated.
She added that one day, in the middle of the night, she was awakened by some noise in her house at Glacis and cries from her husband who had gone outside. She said that she was in the company of her nine-year-old son and ten-month-old daughter when two persons in mask carrying a machete, burst into her room with her husband, tied him up on the bed and asked her to show them the safe. She claimed that upon telling them that the house had no safe, she was hit on the head and later tied up to the burglars bar to the window. She was stabbed with a dagger in her side so that she would confess that there was a safe. She noted that one of them also threatened to kill her with a gun she could notice was hidden under his shirt.
Mrs Bouchereau said that after they had searched the house thoroughly along with a few people who had joined them and finding no safe, the two men and the others left, taking a few items, including her jeep which was later found abandoned at Roche Caiman. She claimed that her sister, who came to her assistance that night, had told her that she had recognised a bus upon coming to her house with the emblem of the National Guard on it.
She added that after the police had come to investigate that night, she and her sister went the National Guard the following day for answers and was sent to see Ronny Mousbe at the New Port. She stated that Mr Mousbe told her that he only witnessed something was wrong in the area that night while he was dropping off some passengers “and that was it from him”.
Mrs Bouchereau said that Ernest Quatre, who was taking up her case, had told her two weeks later that one of the men who were in her house that night was a prisoner from an organised gang from Long Island prison. She added that she was able to identify the person, who was serving a life sentence, from a prisoner’s parade line up. She said that Mr Quatre informed her that the police had no evidence to go on with the case even though some of her stolen properties were found in the locker of one of the suspects. She also said that Mr Quatre had claimed that his questions had fallen on deaf ears during his investigation on the incident at the prison. She said she is still wondering how come prisoners from so far off on an island were able to come to Mahé to burgle her house.
Following that trauma she said that the family opted to leave the place and left for Australia and after sometime they returned to Seychelles and bought a piece of land on April 21, 2008 at Pascal Village on which government has refused her permission to fence off her property on claims of intended acquisition for public access. She noted that she was against the acquisition proposal as the other parcels have alternative access. She claimed the whole scenario was politically motivated in favour of a prominent supporter of the party in power living in the area.
Mrs Bouchereau stated that in 2014 her right of way was fenced off with old corrugated iron sheets, without her consent, by a few neighbours she claimed were supporters of the ruling party. She noted that she was threatened if she was to remove it. She alleged that the fence was finally brought down in September 2015 but followed by the letter of acquisition. She claimed her land was acquired in June, 2016 and she wanted to know the real reason as to why her property was acquired and who was really behind the acquisition.
As for ex-soldier Brian Anacoura, who is seeking redress for being moved from his post at the Seychelles Coast Guard to the Grand Police army camp, he made another appearance to denounce evidence given by former high ranking officer Robert Ernesta that no atrocities happened in 2001 at the Grand Police army camp, especially at the prison side as it had been vacated and had been closed down and he (Ernesta) was not present at the place at that time.
Mr Anacoura claimed that even though the Grand Police prison side was supposed to have been closed down in 2001 as announced by Mr Ernesta in his evidence “the place was open and the atrocities were still being committed in the area”.
Among other issues in relation to his case, he remarked that he has evidence that the place was still being used to beat up people, among other atrocities, during that time in December 2001 which Mr Ernesta had claimed the place was closed down and he was not present.
In response, the chairperson of the commission Gabriel McIntyre said that while getting some of the facts wrong, Mr Ernesta’s evidence has not affected his (Anacoura’s) case as Ernesta has admitted his involvement in human rights violations.
Before the start of the hearings, Mrs McIntyre called again on persons responsible for human rights violations during the one party state, to engage with the process of the commission. She noted that they should also appreciate and understand that the commission is not a punitive process but rather about bringing people together through reconciliation.
She added that the commission is also about understanding the context of those violations and how they happened so as to develop a shared understanding by all people in Seychelles so that we can move forward in confidence that such violations won’t happen again in the future.
Mrs McIntyre noted that perpetrators who have refused to come forward when called for admission of their wrongdoings but have been determined by the commission as alleged and real perpetrators, their names will be referred to the Attorney General and Police Commissioner for further action.
Patrick Joubert