They moved to Seychelles because they had fallen in love
with the country and wanted their nine year-old son to grow up here. But an
argument with a neighbour on Praslin escalated into a situation fraught with
danger and intimidation. Faced with the authorities’ reluctance to help and
protect them, Carine and Alain Gagneux left Seychelles for good on 16 April.
This is their story.
Carine and Alain Gagneux have been coming to Seychelles for
the past 22 years. Over the years, the French couple had developed an
attachment to Seychelles but more particularly to Praslin, where they go every
time they visit the country. The couple’s nine year-old son practically grew up
here. The young family speaks and understands Creole, has many Seychellois
friends and every year when the time to leave Seychelles comes, they find that
they are more and more reluctant to go back “home”.
So they decided to
take the leap they have been dreaming of for years by making a permanent move to
Seychelles. In March, they arrived in Seychelles with big hopes packed in their
suitcases. They rented out a house at Anse Kerlan, Praslin. They didn’t know
the area particularly well, having stayed at Grand Anse, Mont Plaisir and Ste Anne
during their previous visits.
On 18 March, they
moved into their new house and began procedures to start a business there,
hoping that their investment would allow them to apply for a residence permit.
On Saturday 4 April, their neighbour and two of his friends walked onto their
land and started throwing cut grass and dead plants onto the lawn. When Alain
Gagneux asked what the act of aggression was about, the three men started
insulting Mr Gagneux, accusing him of dumping the dead plants on his property.
What should have been a civilized conversation among
neighbours turned into a heated discussion complete with death threats and xenophobic
remarks. The couple insisted that they did not dump anything in their
neighbour’s garden but still promised to have it cleaned, in the name of
keeping the peace.
Except that the men
would not calm down. Instead, according to the couple, they left with a
chilling threat: “In three days, you will leave Seychelles in tears. You will
cry. You will cry”. The next day, the men came back with a machete. When Mrs Cagneux
told them that the gardener would arrive shortly, one of the men shows his
machete to the French woman before making obscene remarks. Scared, the couple
decided to call the police. When the law enforcement officers arrived on the
scene, they called the neighbours in an
attempt to reconcile the two parties But it all went frightfully wrong for the
couple who found themselves accused of threatening their neighbours! When Mrs
Gagneux told the police that she had been threatened with a machete, the neighbours
denied that a weapon had been used to threaten Gagneux couple. And the police
chose to believe the neighbours. When Mrs Gagneux told the authorities that she
had photos to prove her claims, the police made her delete the evidence.
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The Gagneux’s neighbour’s machete is clearly visible.
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The days that followed were, according to the French couple,
“a nightmare”. They were forced to leave their house and seek refuge in a hotel.
The police, they say, refused to take them seriously and every time they made a
trip back to the house, fresh threats were made by the neighbours. At some
point, the couple, tired of being afraid and anxious that the situation would prove
too traumatic to their child, decided that righteous anger would be a more
effective weapon. So they decided to go back to the house they had rented for
five years. One night there was enough, Carine Gagneux stated. They had to
barricade themselves in the house because the neighbours kept walking up to the
house to scare them.
The next morning, they left never to return. But they faced
a dilemma : should they leave Praslin and Seychelles or alert the authorities? They
decided to go for the latter. Emails were sent and phone calls were made to the
ministry of Tourism, the ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministry of Home
Affairs as well as to the French embassy. Contacts were made with newspapers. But
somehow, according to the Gagneux, no one came to their help.
On 16 April, exhausted by the tension and disillusioned by their
experience, the French family left Seychelles for good. Asked by email what their
future projects are, they say “to never come back to Seychelles. The threats
were real and we could tell this wasn’t something that was going to go away. We
were left defenseless, we realised that we couldn’t count on the protection of the
police since they already told us there was no case against the people who
threatened us. We had to leave because we cannot accept to live without
justice.
Our nine year old son has suffered enormously from the
situation”, the couple said. They also claim that the men who had threatened
them “are known on Praslin for terrorizing people, especially foreigners and
this is why the police are not doing anything. They too, are scared of them”. In
a letter sent to the President of the Republic after their departure from
Seychelles, the Gagneux couple said that, “we have come to a bitter realization
– that this country, once so peaceful, is falling prey to alcoholism, drug
abuse and violence. This country where one could sleep with the windows open,
where people used to smile, where racism didn’t exist, where people were proud
to be Seychellois. We would so have loved to become Seychellois and we would have
been proud of it”.
Source:Today
