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Giving evidence: Lewis Betsy at the TRNUC hearing in 2019. Picture courtesy of Today in Seychelles
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What will it take for our President to help the victims of the brutal Rene regime get closure?

24th January 2025

Giving evidence: Lewis Betsy at the TRNUC hearing in 2019. Picture courtesy of Today in Seychelles
Giving evidence: Lewis Betsy at the TRNUC hearing in 2019. Picture courtesy of Today in Seychelles

By Lewis Betsy

The Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission (TRNUC) completed its hearings in 2022. We are now in 2025, almost three years on, and nothing has happened.

Why?

The victims of the Rene regime are still waiting for justice. President Ramkalawan who took power in 2020 promising many things to the people who suffered so terribly after the 1977 coup d’etat is sat on his hands.

We are in painful limbo. We have no closure.

The Government has appointed a committee which includes Michael Green, George Bibi and Mrs Nicole Tirant Gherardi to deal with the issue in hand.

What has happened? So far nothing. I gather that since its appointment this committee has not been given a budget or even an office.

Meanwhile, the victims are still waiting. I guess someone has estimated that there is a limit to how long people can wait. Many victims have passed away already. How cynical is that?

I think the perpetrators are the winners here because they are all walking around town laughing like there is nothing that is going to happen to them.

That is unjust.

Yet, while our President has done so little for the victims, others have been more far more helpful and productive.

I want to take the opportunity today to express my sincere thanks to the committee of the TRNUC Association of Victims (AOV), especially Barry Laine, Regis Francourt, Bernard Sullivan, and Livette Hermitte. They have put in a lot of hard work to get this far. 

So now is the time for all victims – and I am one – to sit down and focus on the issue in hand …and the actions of the Government of the day which is the LDS.

Everything now, of course, depends on which Government we have after this year’s elections. Who, I ask, will be successful in winning the vote of the victims?

We want action but have to be careful and not be swayed by any “alternatives” offered. We have come this far together and throughout all the backlashes we have stuck together. Everyone, particularly those in Government, should realise that we are strong enough to carry on the work until the end.

Since giving our depositions to the Commission, things have been difficult. My case was Number 2 and I have now realised that the LDS party used the TRNUC to get into power.  All these years on, they are still taking their time to address the issues of justice, reparations and compensation that we all long for. 

Indeed, the issue of compensation has been put on the back burner and as a victim under the Rene regime I must express my personal concern on what is going on and what will be the final outcome.

I was detained without charge or trial in 1979 and it is a sad thing that at this late stage, 46 years on, I am still having to express my concern at the way we victims have been treated.

Today I am calling on all victims to focus and stay together until the issue of compensation is settled.

There is no doubt in my mind that one day some sort of settlement will come forward.

Only then will Seychelles be at peace so the people can move forward in unity. 

Unity has always been my focus and I believe that one day we will have a Government for the people of Seychelles so we can all live in harmony and peace together. May that day come soon.