By James Hall

MBABANE, Oct 25 (IPS) - A clash of values -- parental, religious, child's rights and society's responsibilities -- is playing out this week after parents of a three year-old boy refused their child medical treatment on religious grounds.

The boy has been horribly scarred, and was in excruciating pain after he received third-degree burns from a fireplace accident.

Enoch and Gladys Dlamini, rural parents of Swaziland's central Manzini region, belong to the Emuseni Church of Zion. Their faith strictly forbids any form of healing other than spiritual healing. Believing that God would ultimately heal the wounds of their son Nkosikhona, the Dlaminis refused to take him to the local clinic.

Efforts by counsellors from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to intervene were resisted by the couple, who retreated with their son into the mud and wattle huts of their homestead.

Doctors at the Mbabane Government Hospital warned that infection would set in if the burns were not treated, endangering the boy's life. Further, a lifetime of disfiguring scarring awaited the boy if his wounds did not properly heal.

Ultimately, the High Court of Swaziland ordered that social welfare representatives remove the boy from his parents, and bring him to hospital treatment he required for his life-threatening injuries.

But the court's decision was not without soul-searching on the part of a nation where there are no statutory human rights, but freedom to practice one's religion has always been sacrosanct.

ôI gave the matter considerable thought," Justice Thomas Masuku said prior to ordering the boy's removal from his parents. ôI had to weigh the rights of the parents to follow their own religious beliefs against society' s right to protect children in harm."

Front-page photos of Nkosikhona, with his chest horribly scarred by burns, firmed public opinion on the side of government's efforts to bring him medical attention. Press commentaries applauded government's action, and the court's decision.

The boy's parents were not pleased. The father did not prevent social welfare workers from taking his son, but would not assist by packing the child's clothes. He vowed that when his son returned from hospital he would not follow the boy's medical regimen.

ôI will not give him any pills, or even change his bandages," Dlamini vowed. ôIf they want to treat my son, they had better do it all."

Swaziland is a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and is also a signatory to another United Nations covenant, the Convention on Children's rights.

ôWe followed the case because we are parties of the child's rights convention," said Nomzamo Dlamini, child protection manager for the Save Our Children foundation in Mbabane. ôWe have a responsibility as a country to look after the welfare of our children."

The clash of two basic rights has turned the spotlight on the plethora of cults and religious sects in the country that normally receive little notice. Mostly these churches are independent break-aways of larger denominations, and have a handful of followers. But, charges of child endangerment has prompted the local media to examine churches' doctrine.

The Dlamini's church believes that healing comes through prayer. Hospitals and doctors are shunned as unholy. Medicines both modern and of the traditional variety dispensed by local healers are avoided. Children are born without the benefit of midwives.

ôGod takes childbirth as a test. If he chooses this time to take a mother back to him, then so be it, it is His Will," says Jabulani Nxumalo, a church member.

Mainstream religious leaders question this theology. Roman Catholic Bishop Ncamiso Ndlovu says, ôThe Church believes that children should be taken care of. This means that they should be fed, clothed, given a home, and receive medical care when necessary."

Bishop Ndlovu does not belittle the power of prayer. ôThe parents were right to seek God's intervention in the welfare of their child. But they had a responsibility to take him to the doctor when he was injured."

ôThe Lord helps them who help themselves," said Sister Abigale Ndwandwe. ôThat is why we were given the knowledge of medicines."

None of the mainstream religious leaders condemned the Emuseni Church of Zion, in keeping with the spirit of religious tolerance the country enjoys.

When Zionist priests of denominations closely associated with the royal family three years ago urged King Mswati to ban the B'hai religion, which they deemed ôforeign", Mswati refused. Worshipers at the kingdom's main Islamic mosque in Ezulwini and at the commercial Hub Manzini number 5000, up from 3000 two years ago. Traditional beliefs are widespread, and often the practitioners also attend Christian services.

It is perhaps this spiritual dualism, an ability to embrace traditional African beliefs and Western religious imports, that had endowed the country with a lazier faire attitude toward different religions.

The Nkosikhona case also signalled a new era of government intervention into family matters, previously a no-go area for authorities in this tradition-minded country. No government agent had ever removed a child from his or her parents. No Swazi court had to entertain such a plea from government to assist a child who they said was endangered because of his parent's religious beliefs.

ôWe would not even have heard about this case five years ago, because it is only now that an awareness of child abuse exists," says a counsellor with the Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse. ôThe boy was horribly burned, and that was an accident, an act of God. But by withholding medical treatment and keeping the boy in constant pain, the parents were guilty of abuse."

The Swazi court did not punish the parents. The court's concern was with the child, and its decision has set a standard for human rights in this tiny Kingdom of about a million people.(END/IPS/AF/HD/JH/MN/02)