Mauritius government outlaws dissent
By Sean Healy
The president of the island republic of Mauritius assented on December 31 to the new Public Security Bill. The bill, introduced to parliament by Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam on December 14, will severely restrict citizens' civil rights and give police far-reaching powers to crack down on dissidents.
The government gave no notice of its intention to pass the legislation. An article appeared on December 11 in Mauritius's main afternoon newspaper, Le Mauricien, announcing that the bill would be put to a first, second and third reading on December 14. A public outcry delayed presentation of the bill until December 18, but Ramgoolam was then able to ensure the bill's passage along party lines.
In response to public outrage and international protests since then, Ramgoolam has "deferred" the bill's proclamation, and thereby its passage into law. However, he still appears set on enforcing it and Mauritian trade unions, women's groups, left-wing organisations and social movements, united in the "Ad Hoc Committee", are calling for protests to be sent to Ramgoolam from around the world.
Lindsey Collen, a member of the left-wing organisation Lalit and a representative of the Ad Hoc Committee, in a comprehensive denouncement of the bill in the December 16 issue of Le Mauricien, said, "This bill gives totalitarian powers to an already discredited police force ... The police will have the powers a State of Emergency gives them but on a permanent basis."
Police powers
The powers granted to the police would be wide-ranging. Section 6 of the bill makes provision for a permanent curfew. Participating in a "disorder" of more than 10 people is an offence punishable by two years' imprisonment; this even applies to people who are at the scene of the "disorder" without a "reasonable excuse".
Section 3 gives the police commissioner enormous powers to ban organisations he or she has reason to believe are engaged in "terrorism". "Terrorism" is defined vaguely as "the use of violence for political ends" or "for the purpose of putting the public or any section of the public in fear". "Violence" is not defined.
Once an organisation is banned, any link with it means five years' (minimum) imprisonment.
An organisation can also be banned if the commissioner believes that it is "likely to engage in" or "is concerned with the promotion or encouragement" of "terrorism".
Three people speaking together constitutes a "meeting", and if the aim of the meeting is to support a banned organisation, or to further its activities (even if these are legal), that is an offence punishable by at least five years' imprisonment.
Any "article or sign" worn or held "in such a way, and in such circumstances, as to arouse reasonable apprehension that you belong to, or support, a proscribed organisation" is also an offence, punishable by five years' imprisonment.
Giving or lending money to any person belonging to a banned organisation would also be illegal, and carries a five-year minimum sentence if there is "reasonable cause" to believe the funds are to assist the banned organisation.
These laws apply also to organisations likely to be banned. There are no statutes governing the unbanning of organisations.
Section 8 of the bill punishes any words or speech which may stir up "contempt or hatred against any person ... on the grounds of his race, caste, place of origin, colour or creed or against any section or part of any section of the public distinguished by race, caste, place of origin, colour or creed." The possession of printed or electronic words that may stir up contempt for a person on the basis of their place of origin, creed, race, caste or colour is also banned.
Civil rights
The bill includes powers which suspend the civil rights of the accused. Any police officer from the rank of assistant superintendent upwards will be permitted to arrest and detain any person without a warrant, on the suspicion of committing an offence. Stipulations that accused people must provide a "reasonable excuse" as to why they were at the scene of a disturbance or in possession of proscribed articles also overturn the presumption of innocence.
The bill specifies set, minimum terms of imprisonment for offences. Trials for offences under the bill will be held in closed session.
One section even makes it a punishable offence for someone not to inform police of any person who takes part in a "disorder" or aids a banned organisation. No one is exempt. You must inform police of an offence "within a reasonable time", or face imprisonment.
The government has claimed that the new law is an attempt to deal with increasing crime, violence and, in particular, large public riots in the country over the last two years. But Collen points out that the bill "will do nothing to address any of the real social problems in the country except add further and more serious problems still: those of totalitarianism".
Collen points to the irony that more powers are being given to police when police operations were among the reasons for recent riots. Riots, which paralysed the country, broke out in February 1999 after a popular singer, Kaya, was killed in policy custody. There were larger riots several months later when police shot another singer, Berger Agathe.
The root causes of the riots, Collen argues, "... are found in the growing economic and social inequality that every single statistic shows [and] the growing failure of the main political parties to present a political programme to address this growing inequality". Repression will not solve these problems, she argues, and is not designed to.
While the new law has not yet been proclaimed, the police have not been afraid to act in its spirit. Seven activists of the Ad Hoc Committee, including Collen, were arrested outside the National Assembly building on December 18, held for three hours and charged with holding an "illegal demonstration".
[To protest against the Public Security Bill, fax a message to the Prime Minister at (230) 208 7907 (this number is often engaged, so be patient). Send a copy to Lalit at (230) 208 2132.]