TRNUC hears one complainant in public session |10 June 2021
Jonas Estico (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
Jonas Estico was the only complainant to appear in open session before the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) yesterday morning where he stated that he was victimised by the one party state because he did not support the system in place.
CASE 0184 - Jonas Estico
Mr Estico, a Praslin resident who came to live on Mahé at the age of 16, said that he was prohibited by the state to purchase a property he was residing on for so many years and was also beaten, all because he was an opposition supporter.
Speaking about the property at English River, he said he wrote on several occasions to the late President Albert Rene, asking to see him for the possibility to buy the place he was residing at for 26 years, to run a business. He stated that he never got an answer until his sixteenth letter where he finally got to see the president. He added that President Rene refrained from talking about the piece of land that he had come to discuss but rather referred him to Dolor Ernesta, the minister responsible for land at that time. He said Mr Ernesta told him that the government was not in the business of selling land that had been acquired and as the land he was living on had been acquired, it could not be sold to him.
Mr Estico said the house he was living in with his family was in ruin and that all authorities concerned never came to visit or to repair it although he and his wife were paying rent. He also said that they too were prevented from repairing the house for unknown reason.
Now living at Ile Perseverance, Mr Estico said that before moving to the new location he wrote to the former government that in the event of it selling or passing a bye on the land that he should be the first to be considered but has up to now received no response. He stated that the land is still vacant following the destruction of the house he and his family had been living in. He said that he wanted the place only to carry out a food, bakery and retail shopping business.
With regard to the beating he endured, Mr Estico explained that since his early years, he was a strong supporter of the late President James Mancham. He said that upon Mancham’s return from exile, he went to work for him as a Democratic Party (DP) activist but later he had a fall out with the party when Mr Mancham sided with the ruling party.
Mr Estico stated that following the fall-out with the DP, he joined the Seychelles National Party (SNP) as an activist. He further stated that upon arriving home after attending a political rally by the party at Anse Royale on December 5, 2002, a group of plainclothes men, armed with guns, arrived in a small bus bearing the number plate S5773 and picked him up. He said the van, followed by four other cars, drove to upper Union Vale where he was pepper sprayed and beaten by one person only in the name of Marc or Mark Rachel.
He said the police never took an interest in his case.
Apart from hearing Mr Estico in open session, the TRNUC heard two other complainants (one through SKYPE) and a witness in closed session.
Patrick Joubert