Demonstrations lead to 208 criminal proceedings

Maputo, 13 Nov (AIM) – The Mozambican Attorney-General’s Office (PGR) announced on Tuesday that it is working on 208 criminal proceedings arising from the street demonstrations called by independent presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane.

Mondlane and his supporters were outraged by the preliminary general election results released by the National Elections Commission (CNE) on 24 October, which granted victory to the ruling Frelimo Party and its presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo. Mondlane claims that his own parallel count of the results shows that he won the presidential election and that the main party supporting him, Podemos, won the parliamentary election.

Neither the CNE nor Mondlane have published the polling station results sheets (“editais”) that would prove their case.

A Tuesday note signed by Attorney-General Beatriz Buchili blames the demonstrators for destroying property, blocking roads, and restricting the free circulation of people and goods.

The criminal cases that the PGR has opened, she said, are intended to bring to justice “the perpetrators and accomplices of murders, bodily harm, damage and incitement to disobedience” during the demonstrations.

According to a PGR statement, the charges include conspiracy to commit a crime against state security and violently altering the rule of law and civil proceedings aimed at compensating the state for the damage caused.

“Once again, we want to take this opportunity to express our repudiation of these acts which, in addition to the serious violation of human rights, slow down the country’s socio-economic development”, reads the note.

But the PGR note did not mention the excessive use of force by the police against the demonstrators, or the as yet unsolved murders on 19 October of Mondlane’s lawyer, Elvino Dias, and Podemos election agent, Paulo Guambe.

Mondlane on Monday, in a live broadcast transmitted via his Facebook page, announced that the “fourth phase” of the demonstrations would start on Wednesday and continue until Friday.

Mondlane boasted that this phase will “be the toughest ever, since ports and borders will be closed and people will be marching in the provincial capitals across the country.”

By midday Wednesday, however, it was clear that this was another of Mondlane’s empty threats. There were no marches on any of the provincial capitals, and no reports reached AIM that any of the borders had been closed (though this may change, as the afternoon wears on).

Mondlane’s bluster angered the police, and on Tuesday night the General Commander of the police, Bernadino Rafael, gave a press conference at which he equated the demonstrators with terrorists.

He believed that what had happened on the streets of Maputo last week were not simple demonstrations, but “subversion” and “urban terrorism”.

He explicitly compared Mondlane’s followers to the Islamist terrorists who have been wreaking havoc in parts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

“We’ve had enough of violent demonstrations with clear trends to subversion and urban terrorism”, he declared. The police had declared “zero tolerance” for all “illegal and violent demonstrations that attack peace, national sovereignty, order, and public security and tranquillity”.

Rafael promised that on Wednesday, at the start of the “fourth phase” of the demonstrations, the police would be stationed to guarantee security, and so citizens would be able to go about their day-to-day business without fear of attack.

But many Maputo residents did not believe him. Many of them kept their children at home rather than sending them to school. Indeed, private schools had already sent the parents messages that the schools would not be open on Wednesday.

Many Maputo shops remained closed, although informal traders gathered on the pavements to sell their wares. Some buses and minibuses were on the streets, but many preferred not to take the risk.
(AIM)
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