Friday, June 16, 2017

ARMY UNREPENTANT ON STRIP SEARCH



The Swaziland Army has said it strips people naked at border posts to search them and if they do not like it they should stop crossing the border.

The admission came after an international outcry that women routinely had their private parts inspected by soldiers

The Umbutfo Swaziland Defence Force (USDF) – as the Swazi Army is officially know – issued a media statement to clarify its position. It said complaints about their tactics were ‘unnecessary’.

‘If they cannot cope with those security measures used there, they should avoid using those crossings,’ the USDF official spokesperson Lieutenant Nkosinathi Dlamini said.

The Sunday Observer newspaper in Swaziland reported (11 June 2017), ‘He was emphatic that the USDF would not be stopped by such protests and they would continue searching people as before.’

He said, ‘We search for weapons, drugs and other contraband suspected to be hidden on their bodies or inside their clothing, by requiring the person to remove some or all of his or her clothing.’

The searches take place at informal crossings along the border with South Africa.

He said the searches were ‘of vital interest is national security and individual human rights cannot stand in the way of national security’.

The outcry came after a woman in Swaziland complained that soldiers at a border crossing made her remove her underwear and inspect her private parts with a mirror. The Swazi Army said it happened all the time.

See also 

SOLDIERS INSPECT WOMAN’S PRIVATE PARTS

SWAZI SOLDIERS TORTURE OLD LADIES

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