JEDDAH, 25 July — Known to Arab traders in the 5th century, visited by the Portuguese and then colonized and plundered by the Dutch, Mauritius has had a checkered history. In 1710, the French and a century later the British, settled the island on a more permanent basis. In 1968, Mauritius became an independent state within the British Commonwealth and in 1992, a Republic.
The island is famous for its great natural beauty, unbroken virgin coral reefs and lush vegetation. It has become a popular holiday destination for European and American tourists and is developing a healthy offshore banking industry.
The social demography reflects the ebb and flow of the cultures that have flowed through the island over the centuries. About 50 percent is Hindu and 17 percent Muslim, the balance consisting of a mix of Christian, Buddhist and other faiths. Constitutionally, there is no discrimination on the grounds of religion, it being a secular state. But appearances can be deceptive. The glossy images of Mauritius belie the anger seething in the Muslim community at the treatment of Cehl Muhammad Meeah, a local Muslim leader and political figure.
A recent report by Osama Daneshyar, British-based barrister working with the Islamic Human Rights Commission, highlights the systematic abuse of human rights in general and the torture and brutality meted out to Cehl Meeah in particular.
The leading figure in what appears to be a personal, almost messianic campaign of victimization is Chief Inspector Radhoa, who says he “doesn’t need evidence and all that bull shit.”Torture, sensory deprivation and isolation from family and lawyers to extract confessions “continues in violation of the constitution and has, according to Chief Inspector Radhoa, been encouraged and accepted by the government,” says Osama Daneshyar in his report. Indeed, “since the allegations of torture and brutality have been leveled against him, he has been decorated by the prime minister and promoted to the rank of chief inspector.”
Cehl Meeah was born in Mauritius in 1958. He began to teach the Qur’an to groups of children in the local mosque when he was 15. At 21, he won a scholarship to Umm Ul Qura University in Makkah where he studied Islamic jurisprudence and returned to Mauritius in 1991.
Here he entered political life, working with the Hezbollah Party (not connected save by name, with the Lebanese Hezbollah). Simultaneously, he inaugurated a primary school and over 50 Islamic centers around the island where Arabic and Qur’anic studies are taught.
He initiated free drug-detoxification programs in response to the open trafficking of drugs on the streets, notably in the Muslim areas — Plaine Verte — and openly in front of the police who take no action. Careful groundwork in the community saw Cehl Meeah and one other member of the party elected as councilors in the municipal elections of 1996. Also in 1996, three horrific killings took place. The victims were members of minor political parties opposing the Hindu-dominated government. One of the self-confessed perpetrators, Toorab Bissessur and Hateem Oozeer, according to published press interviews and reports, was paid nearly SR40,000 by Deputy Prime Minister Paul Berenger soon afterward.
In early December 2001, Cehl Meeah was arrested and charged with the three murders in 1996 after he had offered to help the police with the investigation when asked to do so. Toorab Bissessur and Hateem Oozeer submitted the allegations to the police. They are both former members of Hezbollah and are strongly suspected of infiltration to destabilize it. Ironically they are graduates of the detoxification programs. Both were members of the majority Hindu party led by Paul Berenger.
It was when Chief Inspector Radhoa arrived that the catalogue of abuse opened. To prevent him from seeing his lawyer, he was taken out of the back door of the police station and to CID headquarters. True to the style, Chief Inspector Radhoa began his way of extracting confessions.
It started with several hours of beatings, resulting in four broken ribs, dislocated shoulder and a face reduced to pulp. That was just for a start. Metal objects were inserted under his fingernails, and a baton into his anus. His private parts were burned with cigarettes, soles of his feet bludgeoned. This left him in a comatose state, with his lawyer and family unaware of his whereabouts.
When eventually he was found in hospital, his doctor and lawyer were prevented from visiting until many of the injuries had subsided to some degree. Even so, independent medical evidence confirmed them. But still Chief Inspector Radhoa failed to get his confession. He explains that the injuries were caused during “a confrontation between Mr. Meeah and Mr. Bissessur, and when the latter attempted to attack Mr. Meeah he (the inspector) immediately jumped in to prevent it.” When Cehl Meeah goes to trial, the government-controlled press has so publicized the case that, in the words of Jaques Panglose of Counsel — a legal organization on the island — “there is not a single person in Mauritius who does not believe as a result of the press that Mr. Meeah is guilty and that even if the jury was made up of 12 Muslims, they would convict him before having to listen to the evidence.” Why has this dreadful train of events come about? The answer lies in the threat to the establishment offered by what seems to them to be an organized Muslim political party. Paul Berenger was supported by almost 90 percent of the Muslim community when he started the MMM (Mauritian Militant Movement), in the early 1970s, despite its being overwhelmingly Hindu. That party’s abysmal record of lack of support for the Muslim community over the years led to a deep dissatisfaction in the community.
When Cehl Meeah began Hezbollah in the early 1990s and demonstrated his good intention by the community programs he started, the MMM suffered an immediate 34 percent decline in Muslim voters. Paul Berenger saw the writing on the wall.
Polls indicate that in the next elections, that percentage will be nearer 64 percent. This will relegate the MMM into a minority position, forcing at best a coalition and a consequent release of the stranglehold the MMM has on the political and law enforcement establishments on Mauritius.
The personal annihilation of Cehl Meeah’s credibility and thus Hezbollah seems to be a desperate attempt by the entrenched government to hold on to power. Like the national symbol of Mauritius, the Dodo, that hope is doomed to extinction.
