
Defense Minister, Cristóvão Chume
Maputo, 6 Nov (AIM) – Mozambican Defence Minister Cristavao Chume has warned that continued violence on the country’s streets could lead the government to deploy troops, rather than the police, to control the demonstrations called by fugitive opposition politician Venancio Mondlane.
Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Tuesday night, Chume said that, under normal circumstances, the police were responsible for maintaining public order, with the armed forces backing them up and performing civic tasks such as assisting the injured, and cleaning the streets.
“But if the rise in violence continues, the armed forces will have to protect the interests of the State”, he warned. “The Defence and Security Forces have the mission and the mandate to protect our sovereignty and the security of the country. They will act against any action that is an attack against our territorial integrity”.
Chume said there are forces at work who want to overthrow the Mozambican government.
This is no great secret: Mondlane has repeatedly declared that the purpose of the “march on Maputo”, which he intends to lead on Thursday, is to end what he calls “Frelimo tyranny”.
Faced with this situation, said Chume, the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM) would protect the sovereignty and security of Mozambique “in terms of the law, without any involvement in electoral and political disputes”.
He feared that “violent demonstrations are cementing hatred among Mozambican brothers, regardless of their political or religious beliefs. They are destroying infrastructures that are vital for the life of Mozambicans”.
The demonstrations “are a serious sign of how divided we are, and so we are appealing for unity”, said Chume. He urged political parties to use their influence to calm their followers and avoid a bloodbath.
Chume called for strengthened vigilance “against the risk of destabilising our country”. He stressed that peaceful demonstrations are legal, but their organisers should collaborate with the police.
Mondlane has continued his nightly live broadcasts on Facebook, trying to whip up enthusiasm for Thursdays “march on Maputo”. Speaking from an undisclosed location, believed to be in South Africa, he promised that he would be back in Maputo on Thursday.
His return, however, might prove difficult, since Mondlane is now a wanted man. The police have issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of incitement to violence. Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda has called him “the moral author” of the demonstrations.
Mondlane continues to insist that there will be millions of people on the Maputo streets on Thursday, but the numbers he cites make no sense.
On Tuesday night, he claimed that over a million people have already made their way from the provinces to Maputo for the march. But the total population of Maputo city is only 735,000 (according to the projections from the 2017 census). Mondlane is asking us to believe that the population of the city more than doubled in a matter of days, and he was the only person who noticed it.
For the third day running, Mondlane claimed that Rwandan troops have been transferred from the northern province of Cabo Delgado to Maputo, to crush the demonstrations. This claim has now been denied by the Rwandan and Mozambican governments, and by the European Union, which Mondlane claimed was bankrolling the alleged transfer of Rwandans to Maputo.
Mondlane also repeated his claim that the head of the intelligence service (SISE), Bernardo Lidimba, who died in a traffic accident on Saturday, was in reality murdered. He offered not the slightest shred of evidence for this allegation.
(AIM)
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