Spit it out
By Scrutator
| T |
HERE is a hilarious but serious joke doing the rounds in Maseru. If you haven’t heard it then you have been missing out on a good laugh.
It goes like so. A team of international crime experts decide to find the best police force in the world.
They gather America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United Kingdom’s Scotland Yard, South African Police Service and Lesotho’s Mounted Police Service.
Each police service is told to bring the best investigators it has in its ranks.
As part of the test the experts take the teams to a jungle. There they release a rare rabbit into the jungle and ask the investigators to find it in the shortest time possible.
First to go into the jungle was the FBI which found the rabbit in ten minutes and brought it back to the experts.
“Wow,” the experts said, “that was fast”.
Off goes the Scotland Yard team which brought back the rabbit in just less than 20 minutes, much to the delight of the experts.
The South African police got their turn but they took ten hours to find the rabbit.
They told the experts that it had taken so long because they were still waiting for President Zuma’s approval.
The rabbit might be politically connected and its “arrest” might cause problems, the South African investigators said.
Along the way the investigators had shot some jackals for allegedly making noise.
Some of them had also fainted during the search because they were overweight (you know how most SA police officers stretch their uniforms at the seams with their bulky bodies).
The experts were shocked.
Then it was the Lesotho Mounted Police Service’s turn to prove its skills.
Off they went. Minutes turn into hours which turn into days while the LMPS searched for the rabbit.
After waiting for two weeks the experts sent the FBI to look for Lesotho’s esteemed investigators.
The FBI had not travelled deep into the jungle when they heard violent screams and angry voices.
There under a huge oak tree they found the LMPS investigators surrounding a baboon.
They were holding melamu, handcuffs, tyre tubes, knobkerries, knuckledusters and other instruments used to inflict pain.
They had caught the baboon within ten minutes of their search and since then they had been brutally torturing it.
They had spent the first week torturing the baboon to tell them where the rabbit was and when that failed they started torturing it to confess that it, the baboon, was actually the rare rabbit the experts had released into the jungle.
The poor baboon had passed out and “passed out things” but the LMPS officers had kept on hammering it.
This might just be a joke but it is also pregnant with meaning.
You see, the police in this country have become notorious for torturing suspects.
Just last week, the High Court awarded M240 000 in damages to a man who had been brutally tortured by the police in 2009.
The man was beaten until he urinated and broke his ribs.
He was continuously suffocated with a tyre tube, kicked with boots and hit with gun butts. He fainted five times during that 48-hour ordeal at the hands of four police officers who, ironically, were the very people who are supposed to protect him.
All this was because he had refused to “vomit” a computer that had been stolen from his workplace.
In the end he was released without a charge but the police officers had already punished him by breaking his ribs, suffocating him and tightening cuffs on his hands.
We have heard of such barbaric tactics in other undemocratic states in the world.
But that this is happening in a democratic country like Lesotho is shocking.
Equally astounding is that this is happening here in Lesotho, a nation of a people who are related to each other somehow and somewhere.
Police officers born of Basotho mothers are doing such heinous things to fellow Basotho born of Basotho mothers.
Torture has become their instrument of choice against crime suspects.
In Lesotho the police beat confessions out of suspects. In the end it doesn’t matter if the court acquits you because the police would have already punished you enough with tyre tubes, knobkerries and blows.
| S |
o what makes our police officers resort to such barbaric interrogation methods?
The answers could be many but six stand out.
The main reason is that our police are generally lazy thinkers. How is that so, you may ask?
Simple! Investigation, by its nature, requires time. But because our police officers generally don’t want to go through that process they would rather grab the person nearest to the crime scene and force them to spit out a confession.
Scrutator has no doubt that there are many people who have been convicted on the strength of confessions they have been forced to spit out through torture.
The second reason is that our police officers just lack investigative skills.
Beating suspects until they confess is therefore their only option.
Investigation requires acumen, something which most of the so-called investigators in the police service don’t seem to have.
That is why really sophisticated criminals in this country perambulate the streets without care.
Their lawyers are always on cue.
Investigative skills are taught but one can also acquire them from books.
Unfortunately books are something that our police officers seem to detest with a passion.
The third reason is that our police officers have not learnt modern interrogation skills. Either that or they have learnt the skills but refuse to use them.
It’s the same old tosh of intimidating and beating suspects.
Their first statement to a suspect is always the same: “Tell us what you did because we know everything.”
When that fails they resort to tyre tubes and knobkerries.
Seriously? A knobkerrie!
| T |
he fourth reason for this lawlessness in our police force is that officers are rarely held to account for their actions.
Police officers torture suspects and the government (Oops, I meant to say the taxpayer) pays the damages.
They torture people because they know that “the people” will pick up the tab when the police are sued.
If the millions of damages the LMPS has paid over the years were being deducted from the offending police officers’ salaries then they wouldn’t dare ill-treat suspects with such impunity.
You can see this “I-don’t-care-attitude” in the way police defend the lawsuits.
They come to the court, admit openly that they beat a suspect to a pulp before half-heartedly challenging the quantum.
The fifth reason is that our policing tactics are just archaic. Our police force is operating in the 21st century using policing methods of the 18th century.
The sixth reason is that our police force just doesn’t recruit quality.
It generally takes what other professions have rejected. It was only recently that they started getting graduates into their fold.
Yet even then, the number of graduates remains small compared to the rank and file high school certificate holders who are charged with the role of protecting the people.
Scrutator understands that the general excuse from the officers is that they are under paid and ill-equipped.
Well, that might be true but if they are demotivated by their poor salaries then where the hell do they get the motivation to torture people with such brutality?
If they are hungry because their salaries are low then where do they get the energy to beat suspects with such vim and vigour?
They say they have no uniforms yet they can afford to use their boots to kick people.
The truth is that some police officers are actually too motivated.
A police officer who beats a man continuously for two days until he faints five times and breaks his ribs is actually “over-motivated”.
They are also motivated to set up roadblocks because motorists become their ATMs. Scrutator has always wondered why some police officers are clamouring for better pay when we all know that they are already earning much more through bribes.
But having said all this Scrutator understands that there are some honest police officers who are just trying to do their jobs under hostile conditions. She knows how some police officers wait for patrol vehicles for hours, stitch their tattered uniforms and scrounge around for basic tools of work but still continue striving. Those are the heroes we need in this country. It’s unfortunate and sad that these heroes are in the minority.
| L |
ast week, I mentioned Idi Amin Dada who brutalised Ugandans between 1971 and 1979.
A Ugandan friend then informed me that I had forgotten to mention that Amin was actually a ruthless buffoon.
Because of his mind-boggling cruelty, some say he was literally mad.
This week the friend brought my attention a ‘classic’ speech Amin delivered on an official visit to England in 1976.
He delivered the speech after being hosted to a sumptuous dinner by Queen Elizabeth II.
“My majesty Mr Queen Sir, horrible ministers and members of parliament, invented guests, ladies under gentlemen. I hereby thank you completely…..Mr Queen, sir; and also what he has done for me and my fellow Uganda who come with me.
“We have really eaten very much. And we are fed up completely . . . But before I go back to my country with a plane from the Entebbe airport of London I wish to invitation you Mr Queen, to become home to Uganda so that we can also revenge on you .
“You will eat a full cow: and also feel up your stomach and walk with difficult because of full stomach completely. Even when you want to rest at night; I will make sure that you sleep on top of me in the top up stairs of my mansion completely so that you can enjoy all the gravity of fresh air.
“But now am sorry because I have to tell you that I have made a short call on you only. But next time I shall make a long call on you to last the whole moon completely. Thank you very much to allow me to undress you completely before these extinguished ladies . . .
“Lastly but not list, I ask the band to play our international anthem of the republic of Uganda and also the British international anthem. Your majesty sir, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and from the bottoms of all the people of Uganda.
“With this few words I thank you Sir.”
Scrutator has not verified if Amin indeed gave this speech but she knows that the man was capable of such silliness.
By the way, Amin was chairman of the Organisation of African Unity at one point.
It took a courageous Julius Mwalimu Nyerere to drive this mad man out of power in 1979.
He also claimed to have eaten human flesh and described it as “salty”.
This is Africa.
Ache!
scrutator29@gmail.com
Comment by Koatake on 29 November 2012:
Hahahahaahahahahahaha! Ke tseo li netefatsoa litaba tsa Khosi ea terene. Ke ‘nete ha a ka ba a re,”Motho oa molimo oa be a iphare,a ikolobise, oxoso e luma khafetsa khafetsa. Ba mo otla ka koto ea cheche pakeng tsa mahetla,” empa o buile ho isang mona.
Joale tse ling ke tsena tsa Amin. Hele! O na fopotlehile ‘nete ena.
Comment by Adroture on 29 November 2012:
Hahahahahaha
Comment by Maru-mats'o on 29 November 2012:
Mona o opile khomo lenaka! (You are spot on!). But this is the tip of the iceberg! LMPS is the most cruel, torturous police service I have ever known and heard of in my life. They are an enemy of the people. They way they treat their fellow citizens and humans, it’s like they are demigods of some sort; a law unto themselves! I know of several shocking and heart-breaking cases of people (suspects) who were badly tortured by the Lesotho Police while in detention. Because our people are poor, weak and defenceless, the notorious Lesotho Police always get away with murder! It is shameful that merciless and brainless people torture our people using state power and resources (guns etc) and expect us decent and law-abiding people to keep shut and turn a blind eye. I bet Basotho don’t love one another as a nation. Things that would shake the whole nation in other countries, in Lesotho they are a norm, and we just look the other way. If we cared about one another, we would have long challenged this inhuman treatment of fellow human beings by the Lesotho Police. If there is any cause we ought to fight for as a nation is for the police TO STOP TORTURE OF THE PEOPLE. Several of my relatives were badly beaten by the Police, including cases where some had to go to hospital for treatment of torture. In one case a poor soul was so badly beaten up and kicked until he urinated blood and couldn’t walk properly. How do torturers expect us to see them as human beings, when they don’t show human qualities? Do Lesotho Police know that it is a crime in other countries to treat animals in a cruel manner? How much more human beings?
That aside, article 8 of the Lesotho Constitution rules against torture thus:
Freedom from inhuman treatment
(1) No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading punishment or other treatment.
In the same vein, the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Article 4 states that:
Each State Party shall ensure that all acts of torture are offences under its criminal law. The same shall apply to an attempt to commit torture and to an act by any person which constitutes complicity or participation in torture.
1. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.
2. Each State Party shall make these offences punishable by appropriate penalties which take into account their grave nature.
This torture of Basotho (humans) in Lesotho continues unabated because the state together with its legal instruments is indifferent to it and it does not take it seriously.
Ooe, may the government protect us from Lesotho Police brutality. The Government and the PM in particular MUST STOP using a language that instigates police brutality against the citizens. The day it hits home, he will know what I’m talking about. LMPS/Government is yet to pay compensation to many more tortured suspects until it dawns on them that they are acting illegally.
Comment by Academic on 29 November 2012:
So true what you said about the Lesotho police.
I have a friend who was wrongfully accused of stealing from a local chinese shop, simply because he lived alone next to the shop, he was then brutaly tortured until the police realized they wernt getting anywher with him.
People please give us advise on the correct procedure to follow after being put through such an ordeal.
Comment by Leponesa on 29 November 2012:
mapolesa a mafokisi a bolaea batho empa haba ts’oaroe, leka ts’ollo ea mali feela.
baokameli ba teng ka mehla ha batho ba khakhathoa ebe ba ikoalla ka liofising 2 hide 4rm pono e empe ea ha motho a kaka ebe hothoe aje mantle a hae.
ha seponesa se kopa ho ekelletsoa matsatsi a ho boloka mots’oaruoa ebe ele hore o fole maqeba, mochochisi ha a botse e main reason why.
re tlo shoa kapa re lemale ke LMPS
Comment by lelimo on 29 November 2012:
Its not funny at all. The police really are going to kill more people. How many people have gone healthy for questioning and just mysteriously die in police custody. People should really report these tortures and make the government pay, then they might think differently about the conduct of our police.
Comment by Khatibe on 29 November 2012:
The police is by far the biggest threat to our democracy. Their brutality is so wide spread that I guarantee you that every Mosotho has either been tortured or knows somebody close who have been tortured. It is a shame. Nice one Scru!!!
Comment by Bobete on 29 November 2012:
I think they are taking out thier frustration on the poor suspects. Police work under severe conditions and hardships and by this I am not condoning thier actions but something must be done to improve thier working environment. Like you say, they are not properly trained and are using old techniques to investigate but on top of them all they are demoralised.
I do have a sense of humour and this Idi Amin story is really incredible.
Comment by Matlopotlopo on 29 November 2012:
Lebaka le leng leo scrutator a le lebalang ke hore the government/taxpayers indirectly draw a budget for torture of suspects! Otherwise, where does these millions paid by the LMPS for torturing the suspects come from??
Comment by Matlopotlopo on 29 November 2012:
Kea kholoa mohla re ka fumanang letona le hlaphohetsoeng hantle la sepolesa, le utloisisang hore this modus operandi o siiloe ke nako ke hona re ka pholohang.
Hape ho rupeloe sepolesa ka matla holima mekhoa ea morao ea ho etsa lipatlisiso, hoba ke belaela le this old method of investigation [torture]o tlameha o le teng curriculum ea PTC eleng moo ho rupeloang lepolesa.
That academy e tlameha ho ba equipped ka management oa batho ba hlaphohetsoeng hantle. Re tlohele ho fuoa these half-baked police.
Comment by Khatibe on 29 November 2012:
Can you believe their slogan was once something like “Leponisa, Mothusi, Motsoalle”. Instead we are so afraid of police that when you see a roadblock, your heart skips a beat in fear and when you pass the road block without being halted we are always so relieved. It is ironic because that is definitely not the way I feel when I approach a friend or Muthusi.
Comment by Thebe ea mosotho on 29 November 2012:
so true on police brutality. The sad part is so many cases go un reported because the victims are afraid of retribution from the same police oficers who tortured them. Some police officers behave as if they are above the law.
Comment by Dabula Makenze on 29 November 2012:
It’s a shame indeed how LMPS tortures suspects. Sometimes tortures victims end up lying in order for them to be released and at least charged. There’s a lot of people who are now serving long prison sentences due to police brutality. Its really a pity that a taxpayers money is involved. You get tortured and ultimately you are going to pay the very same asshole for the damages caused when brutally torturing a fellow citizen to admit that they actually committed crime.
Comment by makhaleng on 29 November 2012:
Torture le tjotjo ke mokhoa oo mapolesa a sebetsang ka teng… maybe they should start watching Crime and Investigation and see how investigations are carried out linaheng tse tsoetseng pele. I always watch the programme and think if it was in Leostho the perpetrator would not have been caught. soooooo…..sad
Comment by WILLARD MUBVUMBI on 29 November 2012:
¡ATENCION A CRITICA!
Comment by WILLARD MUBVUMBI on 29 November 2012:
….but your police officers are trained to ignore the pain and can compete in the comrades marathon. They dont detest perusing the bks, but they hardly have time to study.
Comment by Marathon on 29 November 2012:
The biggest problem of Basotho is cowardice! Re makoala a tetemang mangole basali ba betere ha lekholo. We keep our mouths shut in fear even when we clearly see things getting out of hand. Police are not gods and yet we keep shut even where they have gonne too far.
There will always be black sheep. Some police are real crooks who understand nothing about their responsibility and work except being involved in criminal activities all the times.
Comment by Seoli on 29 November 2012:
One of the best articles yet? I think so.
More importantly, I like the acknowledgement, “But having said all this Scrutator understands that there are some honest police officers who are just trying to do their jobs under hostile conditions. She knows how some police officers wait for patrol vehicles for hours, stitch their tattered uniforms and scrounge around for basic tools of work but still continue striving. Those are the heroes we need in this country.”
Comment by phatsoe on 29 November 2012:
No one on good sense will appraise torture or any form of inhumane treatment done to another human being by a human being. I only disapprove the fact that you keep on giving mapolesa tjotjo and blame it on them.. why do you give out tjotjo in the first place? it is for you not to get prosecuted because you are a wrong doer. When it comes to reading Scrutator Mapolesa ke ma form 5 joalo ka li journalists. Because entry point into police service is a low is boqolotsi…I challenge you to that. So o seka ipatla haholo. They are as frustrated as police… the good thing is that they are not torturing anyone physically yet. keep on the good work
Comment by S'bongile on 29 November 2012:
@Phatsoe.
I take it Scru is working for a large publication or news production (Lesotho Times – even if that production company happens to be in the small country like Lesotho) so your best bet is she has a solid education not just matric or Form E but Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Maponesa ona ke lisono. I bet they don’t have Form E but Form C
Comment by Lekaota on 29 November 2012:
Mapolesa kaofele ke ea a bone fela he ele a ha-mabote le T.F(stadium area) win! Batho ba sehloho hakalo. Those people take police brutality to the next level. They don’t investigate shit bare nnete o tla e bua pele. Something needs to be done e serious to stop this. Beside WE as the people pay their salaries but they bite the hand that feeds them…….
Comment by phatsoe on 30 November 2012:
You donot pay a thing of police salary..Police are citizens like you. they pay tax eveywhere as anybody. they pay pay as you earn.. so what salary are you..? Ke phoso ha ba shapa batho but it is not about training, they are all well trained with skilled personnel with a long experience in policing plus a lot of people with any degree you can think of in lesotho except medicine and some engineering… Do your assignment and check the level of certificates 55% of police hold.
If people are going to come forward and give evidence then police will do their work just fine and the judiciary issue……please:
Comment by Maru-mats'o on 30 November 2012:
Why don’t these heartless and cowardly torturers of our people come out to explain to us why they mistreat their fellow citizens? This simply shows that they are fully aware that what they are doing is unlawful and unconstitutional. I think their masters, including the PM must desist from this unethical tendency of setting them loose on the society, and urging them to use brutal force against suspected individuals. Why can’t they learn from the professionalism of SAPS on how they handle suspects and detainees? Yes, crime must be fought at all costs, but not at the expense of the citizens, who in some cases are innocent.
Just think about these words coming from the PM:
Thabane told Lesotho Mounted Police Services (LMPS) officers during his first official visit to the Police Training College since he assumed the reins that time had come “for us to discipline criminals”.
“We’re launching national campaigns to fight crime and will not rest until it has been eradicated. It does not matter how we go about and it’s none of the criminals and their mothers’ business,” Thabane said.
This is reckless talk in the extreme, and it cannot go unchallenged. We have seen too much brutality and torture. So, tone down Mr PM on this one. Otherwise, this is tantamount to promoting unconstitutional behaviour.
Comment by Lobengula on 30 November 2012:
Ahh; the poor baboon! Lefu leholo ke litseho; ba cho joalo BASOTHO ba heso! If there is a person in this country who has never been totured / terrorised by the police or know of some close relative who has, that person is lucky. My personal experience is of my late father (MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE), who, after visting the local bar for refreshments was “ambushed” by the Hlotse police, arrested, (for walking during the night), assaulted and had his watch stolen by the very same people who were supposed to protect him. He was released the next morning without any charge and warned never again to walk during the night. This is the same police that massacred patrons of Sekekete Hotel in Maputsoe few years back; the same police that terrorised the villagers of Ha Mpeli in the Leribe Highlands, shooting one teenagers with high calibre machine guns resulting in a leg amputation, the same police that arrested the young Chief of the same village, totured him and killed him in the Katse Dam at Ha Lejone. LMPS is just a legalized TERRORISM ORGANIZATION sponsored by taxpayers!
Comment by Lekaota on 30 November 2012:
Phatsoe hana mapolesa a patallwa ka chelete efeng cause ke tax tsa rona? LMPS is a government institution hence they are included in the budget speech! Everyone pays tax so ur argument ya hore they also pay tax doesn’t amount to isht……
Comment by MOANANONG on 30 November 2012:
Best joke I’ve come across this year Scru….well said
Sometimes I wonder what we actually mean when we say Lesotho is a democratic country…if people continue to be harassed and tortured by police as is the practice, what constitutional human rights are we really enjoying in this country? This should however not come as much of a surprise coz we probably have the most corrupt and incompetent police force in Africa. They are so miserably incompetent and pathetic that expecting them to find a rabbit in the jungle would clearly be asking too much…they wouldn’t find their goddamned nose if you asked them t touch it.
Why are they so incompetent? There answer for me lies in their appointment…most of them are COSC rejects. Crime these days has advanced so much that a COSC candidate for a trooper is clearly obsolete….with so many unemployed graduates roaming the streets aimlessly, I am just wondering why government is not reviewing the job specification of entry level into police force.
Comment by 1 on 30 November 2012:
Ha!
Comment by S'bongile on 30 November 2012:
Well said Moananong
Comment by Lobengula on 30 November 2012:
@ MOANANONG; Lesotho le hloka batho ba tsoanang le uena tjee! Can you imagine a COSC rejected policeman trying to investigate an itricate money laundering scheme or a Nigerian 419 internet scam? The poor soul struggling to navigate a simple Nokia 3310 cellphone tasked with investigating an Asian human smuggling ring? Criminals these days are advanced and sophisticated and like you say, it is really asking too much from these guys, that is why they will resort to hammering the poor baboon into “vomiting” the whereabouts of the rare rabbit or the baboon confessing that it is actually the rabbit the men in the blue are hunting.
Comment by zulu on 30 November 2012:
Scru le ba u tlatsitseng what you see in the movies is nothing compared to police work, have you seen that in the film all resources of NYPD, for example, are committed to one case? that is not an ideal situation, stop misleading people!Believe me we have investigators in the LMPS, who are just poorly resourced.
Comment by Pashasha on 30 November 2012:
@phatsoe & zulu,you can desagree but you can not egnour.chee! bafana baa!
Comment by Geek on 1 December 2012:
In my honest opinion, this is your best work thus far. Although, it’s extremely critical, you’ve managed to remain objective. I appreciate that.
It’s true we have a horrible police service.
I believe the bribery problem can be solved by hiring top police officials who care about the LMPS’s image and creating incentives for Lesotho’s citizens to report corrupt cops. All police officers suspected of corruption should undergo intensive psychological examinations. New applicants should also go through the same exams.
Comment by Lekhoakhoa on 1 December 2012:
“Lesholu le lefa ka hloho” is that not our saying? I wish they could catch those thieves who came and stole all my mother’s sheep. I would want them to shoot them in the buttocks! That might be a deterrent. I get your point but as far as I know we have sent so many people to London for forensic training what does Scru think they do? One of my friends was telling me that some police in the UK at Leicester go out at night on what they call Paki bashing meaning that if you are of the Indian origin that night you are going to get it for doing absolutely nothing wrong! We all saw how Rodney King was beaten to a pulp by Los Angeles Police? Yet Scru thinks nothing of it, hahaha
Comment by madise on 1 December 2012:
ke mathata; ha se fela makgowa a reng mothomotsho ke kaffir!
Comment by Polo on 1 December 2012:
Moelelo oa pale ena o motle haholo, se bolelwang mona ke nnete re phelang ka yona ka matsatsi le matsatsi!! Bothata rona bathobatsho kena le lenyatso le lehloyo!
Comment by Lekhoakhoa on 1 December 2012:
Here we go again, nobody mentions the fact that we have become prisoners in our homes, we have to spend a fortune on burglar bars on windows and doors and even the veranda! Look at our fences why do we spend so much on security? Because there is anarchy in the country, these people that almost everybody is defending are on the rampage raping, murdering innocent women and children. I refuse to defend the scum bags that have no respect to anybody. We used to leave our doors unlocked and go to town. Try doing that now, the other day the scum bags were watching me come back with my groceries, the following day when I come back from work all my food was gone they managed to break the window. they took all the food even the salt. Had Scott been water boarded we would by now know who his accomplices were.