Seychelles second and long serving President Albert Rene aged 83 died at Seychelles Hospital during in the early hours of the 27 February.
At Seychelles Independence in 1976 Albert Rene was Prime Minister in the coalition government of President James Mancham. In 1977 he staged a Coup D’Etat and became President. He handed power to his VP James Michel only in 2004.
He survived many attempted Coups and died never being formally questioned by the island’s opposition who hold a comanding majority in the Seychelles National Assembly. He has also never been compelled to explain what happened during his many terms of office.
Deaths and disappearances of many Seychellois during his reign remain unanswered. The truth about the deaths of Son ChangHim, Hassan Ali, Gilbert Morgan, Gerard Hoareau among so many others, and reason for all the arbitrary arrests and imprisonment “at the President’s pleasure” .during his term of office will now never be known.
Albert Rene will receive a State Funeral and will be laid to rest in the grounds of State House alongside the island’s founding President James Mancham and British and French personalities of the past.
Source: Alain St. Ange
