ABC Youth League condemns ‘Operation Hard Fist’

Staff Reporter

Maseru – The All Basotho Convention (ABC) Youth League this week issued a public statement condemning the actions of the military in September this year on the trail of what the army has named “Operation Hard Fist”. Two men from the Khokhoba village in Berea district were seized by the army purportedly on suspicion that they owned or kept illegal firearms and the duo ended up dying in the hands of the army.

This tragic incident is part of a series of army misdeeds which came hard on the heels of the Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s statement of July 31 at the Makoanyane barracks in Maseru where he ordered the Commander to field the forces to “do all in their power, whatever it is” to uproot crime in the villages. Matekane exhorted the army to demonstrate the dedication they had shown in the field in Mozambique where they were part of an anti- terrorist SADC brigade.

The ABC Youth League says while the army and the government, in separate statements in the days following the incident, said this was an unfortunate incident, an accident and a mishap and investigations had since been ordered into it.

The former ruling party’s youth league adds that the prime minister should have foreseen that his pronouncements were dangerous. The ABC youth league statement adds that the Prime Minister’s remarks followed another statement by deputy commander MG Matela Matobakele at Fobane in Leribe following a raid by the army at the Liphakoeng in the same area where villagers were brutalised and one later died in hospital of his injuries.

The deputy commander similarly threatened the citizens with visitations of the army’s wrath witnessed in Mozambique, if only the law got out of the way.

The youth league’s statement goes further to state that when this is taken together with the deputy commander’s statement at a village meeting at the home village of the commander, Ha Thuhloane in March 2021, that the army would raid the villages without the police and whip up communities indiscriminately and no media and social media noises would stop them, is cumulatively unfortunate.

This was followed by the army raid and brutalisation and seizure of youth in the northern residential districts of Maseru (Koalabata, Ha Mabote and Naledi) immediately thereafter, which the same deputy commander justified saying this was done because there was no police in the country anymore.

An unbiased observer, the statement says, could only conclude that these were well-planed and deliberate acts of brutality for which the permission was requested or seized from and later granted by the head of government who is also the Minister of Defence.

The Army Commander, in his appearance before the parliamentary portfolio committee overseeing the ministries under the Prime Minister, including Defence, said the operation was launched as a military-only operation under Section 5 of the LDF Act in June after observing the faltering of the government-ordered “Operation Fiela” which began in April combining all the agencies and using Section 190 of the LDF Act.

This, the ABC youth league say they cannot accept.

They counter that the Act in fact does not allow the army to deploy itself because it says the army shall be employed for, among others, “maintenance of essential services including maintenance of law and order and prevention of crime and other functions determined by the Minister from time to time” that should be read to say that the army shall be employed by the civilian authority and shall not employ itself whereat the government can wake up one day hearing of the adventures of the army in the village as is happening now.

The statement notes that the first time this happened was when the former commander Lt. Gen Tlali Kamoli raided the home of the then Prime Minister Thomas Thabane who also served as the defence minister and Commander-in-Chief on behalf of the King after the Prime Minister removed him from the post. The soldiers also attacked the home of the nominated new commander the late Maaparankoe Mahao on the same night while the main police stations in Maseru on 29 August 2014 for which, among others, he is facing charges in detention.

It further states that it is strange that the Commander told the parliamentary committee that since the army’s Covid-19 operations the command had learned that they needed arresting powers of the same order as those of the police, and have since requested the Ministry to facilitate the same to no avail.

The government statement said the dead Khokhoba men passed away after they “were taken to military barracks (liahelong tsa Sesole) and further that such powers to take away civilians as the Commander genuinely admitted only repose with the police and that indeed such a campaign is the remit of the police where the army comes in only for beefing up as per the section of its legislation which was also quoted by the Minister of Police in his comprehensive television update on the achievements of the multi-agency Operation Fiela on the 16 August this year, contrary to the commander’s claims of its faltering.

The statement concludes before suggesting solutions that the Commander is a disappointment and quite intentional in misdirecting himself in respect of his mandate, given that as he said before the Committee that peaceful relations among the agencies returned only in 2018, under ABC-led coalition government, after a turbulent patch of years, when he took the reins together with the police and intelligence chiefs and let their respective agencies from the beginning to the end of the reforms which are only awaiting completion of legislation. It is therefore sad that it is also under him that the army seems to be deliberately regressing, the statement notes.

The youth call upon the prime minister to order immediate stoppage of this campaign as it is against the laws of the country and mandate of the army.

They also call on parliamentarians, leaders of political parties and faith leaders, the intelligentsia, civil society and the media to condemn the Prime Minister for his fielding of the army with a blank-cheque mandate and countenancing of its self-willed acts.

These acts, the youth say, constitute an assault on the Constitution and all its supporting laws which confer on each citizen inalienable rights and sets the limits for denial of such rights and avenues for challenging such denial of rights.

They appeal the leaders and members of the ruling parties, especially the prime minister’s party, to prevail on their members on the national executive since, according to the statement, the self-control of armies under elected governments usually happens where the rulers seek to threaten opposition and other segments of the community exercising oversight on government while it is on a path of prosecuting corruption or seeking to retain power without support.

They say this was witnessed in the 2015 coalition government where intra-party friction on the award of big government contracts including eminently the one on government fleet procurement and management split the main ruling party and in the 2023 intervention of the army when the backbenchers sought to pass a vote of no confidence in the current prime minister.

They end with calling for a national dialogue on the grim state of crime including all stakeholders and role players in the execution and containment of crime, whom they say are well known and the country has ample experience with such palavers.