Island bishop slams marxists

THE government in the Seychelles is riding roughshod over the rights of its people, and forcing its opponents to leave the islands in the Indian Ocean, according to the nation's Catholic bishop. In a statement read out on Sunday to churches throughout the Seychelles, Bishop Felix Paul of Port Victoria, the capital, accused the government of turning its face away from "democracy and the fundamental rights of man".
"Those who wish to express a political opinion contrary to that of the ruling power are automatically treated as serpents, racists or opportunists seeking their privileges or interests, as traitors or enemies of the people," the bishop said.
President France-Albert Rene's one-party marxist government has ruled the Seychelles since seizing power in a coup (retail in 1977. Two years later a new constitution was passed outlawing opposition political parties.
Bishop Paul quoted from Pope John Paul II's recent encyclical on the church and society, Centesimus annus, which attacked marxism for its failure to meet people's economic, cultural and spiritual needs.
"Families have had to go into exile for political reasons. Citizens have disappeared. There have been assassinations, arbitrary imprisonments and rebellions. An atmosphere of fear has grown up, paralysing people's free expression," stressed Bishop Paul. "Isn't that proof the totalitarian regime of one party states do not conform to the legitimate aspirations of the citizens? 'Material progress is not enough. .Our country feels the lack of something more essential," the bishop said.
But Bishop Paul was optimistic that a forthcoming referendum on one party rule in the Seychelles would provide a "ray of hope" for the future.