1999 L'Amicale riots

Last updated
1999 L'Amicale Riots
Date23 May 1999 (1999-05-23) – 26 May 1999 (1999-05-26)
Location
La Chaussée Street, Port Louis, Mauritius
Caused byAngry supporters of Scouts soccer club
Methodsrioting, looting, property damage, protests
Resulted in7 dead

The 1999 L'Amicale Riots started in the evening of Sunday 23 May 1999 in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius after angry supporters of Scouts Club vandalised several buildings as their team had lost a match against rival soccer club Fire Brigade. A few hours later a gambling house called L'Amicale caught fire, causing the death of seven individuals who were trapped inside. This example of football hooliganism became known as L'Affaire L' Amicale in the years following the original riots. [1]

Contents

Background

The soccer match between Fire Brigade versus Scouts Club ended by 17:00 at Anjalay Stadium in Belle Vue. The club Fire Brigade had won the game with a score of 1–0 after being awarded a controversial penalty. This triggered protests and incidents amongst the supporters of the rival teams who were present at Anjalay Stadium. Sugar cane fields were torched in rural areas. [2] When the supporters returned to the capital city of Port Louis they vandalised a number of buildings including the office of Mauritius Football Association, Emmanuel Anquetil building and the Pope Hennessy Police Station. [3]

By 19:00 a gambling house known as L’Amicale, located along La Chaussée Street, became engulfed in flames with 275 people trapped inside after rioters threw "Cocktail Molotov " and fire bombs through the historic building's windows and cars on fire blocked all exits. Firefighters took hours to suppress the fire. Subsequently, inside the L'Amicale building seven badly burnt bodies were recovered. The victims were Yeh Lin Lai Yau Tim, Jean-Alain Law Wing, Eugénie Lai Yau Tim, Catherine Lai Yau Tim, Jeannette Ramboro, Krishna Luckoo, and Abdoo Hakim Fawzi. [4]

Historically the Scouts Club had been known as Muslim Scouts Club as all players and most of its fans were Muslims. [5] [6] On the hand the Fire Brigade players and fans were mostly of Roman Catholic faith and of Creole ethnicity. Local authorities feared that the Port Louis riots would escalate into larger ethnic riots between Creoles and Muslims. Thus the government imposed an 18-month nationwide ban on all soccer games. Only the national team was allowed to play during this period. [7]

Aftermath of riots

In protest against the deaths and violence thousands of Mauritians marched in the streets. In total 25 arrests were made by local police during the week following the riots.

On 20 November 2000 police charged four supporters of Scouts Club (Sheik Imram Sumodhee, Khaleeloudeen Sumodhee, Abdool Naseeb Keeramuth and Muhammad Shafiq Nawoor). They were subsequently tried and sentenced by judge Paul Lam Shang Leen to 45 years in prison for burning the L'Amicale gaming house, which caused the deaths of seven persons trapped inside. [8]

A group of 12 lawyers consisting of former attorney-general Rama Valayden, barrister Raouf Gulbul, Neelkanth Dulloo, Sanjeev Teeluckdharry, Sameer Hossenbaccus, Ravi Rutnah and 6 others compiled a report entitled Wrongfully Convicted which attempted to highlight flaws in the judgement against the Amicale Four. They released the report on 23 May 2013 in which they suggested that the arson of L'Amicale gaming house seemed to be the work of the Escadron de la mort (Squadron of Death), which was a gang of vigilantes who performed voluntary social work to combat drug traffickers but which had transformed into a radicalized sectarian group. [9] [10]

By 2015 their sentence was commuted to 18 years in prison by the Power Commission of Grace. Their release was scheduled for 17 March 2019 but in January 2018 their lawyers had sent a letter to Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth to inform him of a “miscalculation of the prison administration.” The authorities thus granted their request. On 23 August 2018 the four convicted men were released from Riche Lieu Prison after spending 19 years there. [11]

Given that several fires started simultaneously it is believed that they had been meticulously planned instead of being random events. As a result, firemen could not attend to all the sites at the same time as there were more than 100 calls asking for help. Rama Valayden has detailed other forms of evidence in his 2014 report Wrongly Convicted. [12] Soon after their acquittal some of the four accused supporters of the Scouts Club received threats in order to discourage them from seeking justice. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate</span> Political party in Mauritius

The Mauritian Social Democratic Party, also known as the Mauritian Conservative Party, is a political party in Mauritius. Conservative and Francophilic, the PMSD is the fourth biggest political party in the National Assembly and currently forms part of the opposition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mauritius Football Association</span> Governing body of association football in Mauritius

The Mauritius Football Association (MFA) is the governing body of football in Mauritius. It was founded in 1952, affiliated to FIFA in 1964 and to CAF in 1965. The association was formerly known as the Mauritius Sports Association but renamed to Mauritius Football Association in 1984 through the introduction of a Sports Act by the government. The founding members of the association were FC Dodo, Faucon Flacq SC, CSC, Hounds, Royal College of Curepipe, and Saint Joseph College, all of which were based out of Curepipe and, with the exception of Flacq SC, have since ceased to exist. The Mauritius Football Association organizes the national football league and the national team.

Indo-Mauritians are Mauritians who trace their ethnic ancestry to the Republic of India or other parts of the Indian subcontinent in South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pamplemousses SC</span> Mauritian football club

Pamplemousses Sporting Club is a Mauritian football club based in Belle Vue Harel. They play in the Mauritian League, the top tier of Mauritian football.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LGBT rights in Mauritius</span>

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Mauritius have expanded in the 21st century, although LGBT Mauritians may still face legal difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Prior to 2023, sodomy was criminalized by Section 250 of the Criminal Code. However, Mauritius fully decriminalized homosexuality in October 2023. Although same-sex marriage is not recognized in Mauritius, LGBT people are broadly protected from discrimination in areas such as employment and the provision of goods and services, making it one of the few African countries to have such protections for LGBT people. The Constitution of Mauritius guarantees the right of individuals to a private life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1976 Mauritian general election</span>

General elections were held in Mauritius on 20 December 1976. They were the first general elections to be held since independence on 12 March 1968 and came nine years after the previous elections in 1967. Although elections had been scheduled for 1972, they were cancelled by the Labour Party–Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate–Muslim Committee of Action coalition government due to political unrest. The year prior to these elections was marked by the May 1975 Students protest riots.

Mauritian Australians are Australians of Mauritian descent, or who were born in Mauritius.

The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Port Louis on the island of Mauritius.

The 1968 Mauritian riots or Bagarre raciale Plaine Verte refers to a number of violent clashes that occurred in the Port Louis neighbourhoods of Cité Martial, Bell Village, Roche Bois, St. Croix, Cité Martial and Plaine Verte as well as in the village of Madame Azor near Goodlands in Mauritius over a period of ten days, six weeks before the country's declaration of independence on 12 March 1968.

The 1999 Mauritian riots were national-scale rioting and protests in Mauritius following the death of the popular "seggae" musician Joseph Réginald Topize, better known by his stage name "Kaya", in police custody. The rioting lasted for four days from 21 to 25 February 1999. Four civilians and one police officer were killed in the riots with hundreds of people suffering injuries. It was the first incidence of mass rioting in Mauritius since the country's 1968 riots. The riots resulted in a majority of the island's police stations being sacked by protesters with 250 prisoners escaping prison. Many businesses were looted and substantial property damage was done with over 200 vehicles being set on fire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaëtan Duval</span> Mauritian politician (1930–1996)

Sir Charles Gaëtan Duval QC was a barrister, statesman and politician from Mauritius who was the leader of the Parti Mauricien Social Démocrate (PMSD) political party.

Maurice Curé (1886-1977) was one of the founders of the Labour Party in Mauritius in 1936.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1943 Belle Vue Harel Massacre</span>

The 1943 Belle Vue Harel Massacre refers to a significant strike which escalated into riots amongst labourers working in the fields of the Belle Vue Harel Sugar Estate, near the village of Belle Vue Harel on the island of Mauritius in September 1943. The riots led to the death of 4 people with an additional 16 people being injured.

Sir Satcam Boolell GCSK QC was a Mauritian politician who served as member of the Legislative Assembly in Mauritius. He died on March 23, 2006, in Curepipe. He was also known as "Somduth" by his peers and family members.

Azor Adélaïde, also known as Azor Adelaide, was a Mauritian Creole political activist who was shot and assassinated along Chasteauneuf Road in the town of Curepipe, Mauritius on 25 November 1971. Although witnesses have provided detailed accounts of the murder it remains unsolved.

Lall Jugnauth was actively involved in pre-colonial and post-colonial Mauritian politics.

Jayarama Valayden, most commonly known as Rama Valayden is a Mauritian lawyer, social worker and politician.

Ratsitatanina, also known as Ratsitatane (1790-1822), was a Malagasy nobleman. Initially influential at the Merina court in central Madagascar, he fell from grace due to his opposition to the King's British allies. He was exiled to Mauritius, where he escaped from prison, was captured and was executed. He was the son of minister Andriamambavola and was reputedly the nephew of King Radama I, although the latter belief was challenged by the historian Pier Larson, who identified the two as brothers-in-law instead. The first Prime Minister of Madagascar, Andriamihaja, is believed to have been Ratsitatanina's son.

Satyajit Boolell, also known as Ajit Boolell, is a Mauritian lawyer. He previously served as the Director of Public Prosecutions (2009-2022). Under the Asset Recovery Act, this role is considered the enforcement authority of asset recovery in Mauritius.

References

  1. ↑ "The amicale case: Where will it go from here?". L'Express. Retrieved 2013-08-15.
  2. ↑ "World: Africa Mauritian football riots -- seven dead". BBC News(1999). Retrieved 2020-05-24.
  3. ↑ "Sa femme enceinte est morte dans L'Amicale : Ricardo Ramboro, au nom du fils". Le Mauricien. Retrieved 2018-05-23.
  4. ↑ "L'affaire L'Amicale: les dates importantes d'un drame national". Le Mauricien. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
  5. ↑ "Gloire du football Mauricien". 5 Plus. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
  6. ↑ "Muslim Scouts: Expo photos pour un 70e anniversaire". Le Mauricien. Retrieved 2011-07-09.
  7. ↑ Kessel, Anna (3 July 2005). "Having a ball in Mauritius". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  8. ↑ Moris, E. "L'affaire L'Amicale: Une tragedie nationale". Zinfos Moris. Retrieved 2018-08-23.
  9. ↑ Boolell, Satyajit Boolell (19 July 2013). "One wrongful acquittal or conviction is one too many". Mauritius Times. Retrieved 2013-07-19.
  10. ↑ "Affaire L'Amicale: Rama Valayden publie son rapport "Wrongfully Convicted"". Le Mauricien. Retrieved 2013-06-29.
  11. ↑ "L'Amicale Case: Four Convicts Free after 19 Long Years". Defimedia. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
  12. ↑ Gangaram, Jean Marie. "Bonheur et soulagement". 5 Plus. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  13. ↑ "L'affaire L'Amicale : les Sumodhee reçoivent des menaces". Sunday Times. Retrieved 2018-10-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.