Peter Kenworthy

14 APRIL

10:40 AM (GMT+1): SWAZI REGIME’S 'VICTORY' IS A PYRRHIC ONE

‘If the world media misconstrued the “uprising” to be representative of popular sentiment inside Swaziland, then its flopping would deal the wider struggle for democracy a serious body blow.’ Sikelela Dlamini, Swaziland United Democratic Front’s projec

Inspired by Tunisia and Egypt, Swaziland is the latest African country to plan an uprising based on online social networking tools such as Facebook.

‘We would like to call on the influential international actors to take immediate measures, including exerting pressure and imposing sanctions on the Moroccan government, to put an end to this conflict,’ said Mohamed Abdelaziz, president of Western Sahara’s Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR)

‘We will always actively try to mobilise and conscientise our people so that they become aware of their rights and that they stand and fight for them.’

Change is becoming increasingly urgent in Swaziland, an authoritarian and absolute monarchy where the economy is in danger of spiralling out of control. But as recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have shown, change can happen quickly, says Dlamini.

To read accurate daily analyses of the situation in Swaziland, you must turn not to its self-censored official newspapers or a foreign media that has no daily presence in Swaziland, but to a blog written by Richard Rooney, a 54-year-old journalist and former associate professor at the University