Police admit killing demonstrators and even apologise

Maputo, 29 Dec (AIM) – The General Commander of the Mozambican police force (PRM), Bernardino Rafael, on Wednesday admitted, for the first time, that the police have killed protesters during the demonstrations against the municipal election results, regarded as fraudulent by the opposition parties – but insisted that such deaths were “accidental”.

Speaking in the municipality of Chiure, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, he admitted that police had shot one man dead in a demonstration in Chiure, but went on to admit that there had been “various incidents”.

The excuse is that demonstrators died while the police were trying to restore public order.

“There are always unforeseeable situations, and nobody is prepared for them to happen. So we had an incident here. It’s an incident in which a young man lost his life in this guarantee of order and security”, confessed Bernardino Rafael, cited by the independent television station STV.

He then apologized, not only for the death in Chiure, but also for “several other incidents during the course of the restoration of public order and security, and for which no prior preparations had been made.”

Rafael justified his apology with the need “to bring this humanization of your police”, in clear recognition of “the mistakes made by police agents in applying the law”.

He recognized that these police agents did not do their job “as it should be done”, and made some “mistakes”. But he minimized this as something “normal for our Mozambican police”.

He declared that it is his moral, social and spiritual duty “to apologise to all the families” who were victims of the police behavior

To date, the police have officially confirmed killing three citizens accidentally – one in Chiúre, one in Angoche and another in Marromeu. But a preliminary investigation by the bulletin on the municipal elections published by the anti-corruption NGO, the Centre for Public Integrity (CIP), indicates that a further nine people were killed by police bullets, six of them in Nampula city (on 27 October) and three in Nacala-Port (on 26 and 27 October).

In all, there were 12 known deaths, but some of those hit by police bullets and hospitalized, could also die of their injuries.

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has begun criminal proceedings against the police agent who shot dead a young trader in the fish market in Marromeu. But so far nothing has been said about proceedings against police agents responsible for the other fatalities.

(AIM)

Pf/ (406)