National Assembly committee on truth and reconciliation misrepresents the facts |25 June 2018

The Truth, Reconciliation and Unity Committee of the National Assembly -- comprising Hon. Wavel Ramkalawan (chairperson), Hon. Charles de Commarmond (vice- chairperson), Hon. Nicholas Préa (member and Speaker of the National Assembly), Hon. Bernard Georges (member), Hon. Basil Hoareau (member), Hon. François Adelaide (member), and Hon. Simon Gill (member) -- set about creating the new proposed Truth and Reconciliation Law with the assistance of Pastor Christian Lodewyk of South Africa and Richard Rogers also of South Africa.

Pastor Lodewyk came here last year and he told us on SBC television that we should do things our own way and involve the people.

Clearly our politicians did not heed his advice.

The Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP) spent two years working on this project and we researched 51 countries and no one contacted me or anyone else in our NGO. STRPP made a presentation to this committee last year and we did not hear a dicky bird from them; we held seminars on Mahé and Praslin and still they did not consult with us; we presented our report to the President; we sent a copy of our report to this committee and several senior and executive persons in our society but they completely ignored us and now they have the nerve to say they “met extensively with Barry Laine ….” etc. This is not true because after we obtained a copy of this proposed law I wrote to Hon. Wavel Ramkalawan about all the things that are wrong with their proposals and Hon. Bernard Georges responded and I sent Bernard back an email response. Three emails can hardly be construed as “meeting extensively” can it?

Clearly these 7 MNAs have told a lie (mendacium) which is a statement used intentionally for the purpose of deception and they must either resign or consult with civil society. We have made an official complaint to the President and the Attorney General. In addition a lie is a mortal sin (peccatum mortale) and a team led by a priest should not have committed such a mortal sin, no doubt repentance and penitence are in order?

Truth and Reconciliation seminar

On June 16, the STRPP, Association for Rights, Information & Democracy (ARID) and Seychelles Civil Society (SCS) held a seminar at the STC conference room to discuss the proposed new TRC law. People were scared to attend the seminar and they did not want to be seen on SBC TV. The consensus of the seminar is that the proposed new Law has been prepared by politicians to afford protection for their friends and colleagues which is not necessary. The seminar agreed that politicians should not get involved in nominating any commissioners because it was the politicians who committed the atrocities in the first place.

The seminar also agreed that:

(1) No legal powers should be granted to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which will permit the Laws of Seychelles as administered by our legal system to be used. (2) No Amnesty, because it is illegal, however we have the Presidential Pardon in our Constitution which we can use if and when appropriate.

(3) No private hearings should be held, notwithstanding we will not hold public hearings either where the victims or perpetrators may be humiliated as it happened in other countries, we are more civilised, some interviews can be held in camera and the information released at the appropriate time.

(4) No exemption for spouses to give evidence, the commission will be guided by the Laws of Seychelles.

(5) We want a Museum for the records to be available to future generations and we want a Coup D’état monument in Victoria as a remembrance of those who lost their lives.

(6) All Commissioners to be Seychellois and nominated one each by STRPP, ARID, CEPS,  SCS, Chief Justice and Police Commissioner and two by SIFCO.

The seminar heard that the diaspora who numbers around 40,000 Seychellois overseas would like to nominate one commissioner. That’s 9 commissioners in total.

The seminar also brought out an important point which is once the matters of the Coup D’état have been dealt with the commission should look into atrocities committed in the period from Independence to Coup D’état, the period of the British rule and the period of the French rule in order to complete the job.

A commission cannot be formed just to create a report

The seminar agreed it makes no sense appointing a commission to prepare a report then hand over the report to the President and dissolve itself. This is a mistake which other countries have made because once the commission has been dissolved other agencies tasked with doing the various jobs recommended by the report have failed to do so and they blamed the commission which is not around anymore. In some countries even the President has changed and no one cares anymore. In South Africa some people are still waiting for their compensations after 20 years. The civil societies of Seychelles proposes the commission should be mandated for 4 years and it will be dissolved when all matters are completed.

It was also suggested that the government should engage in a programme for Seychellois to return home by providing tax concessions and other allowances to enable returning Seychellois to settle back in Seychelles and sometimes compensation need not be money but give back some land where the returning Seychellois lost their land during the period of Coup D’état.

The seminar closed with a strong call for the public to be engaged in finalising this proposed law. A Truth and Reconciliation process is supposed to unite the nation but the current proposed law will divide our nation even further.

Submitted by:

Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP)

Association for Rights, Information & Democracy (ARID)

Seychelles Civil Society (SCS)