Wednesday clashes caused five deaths

Maputo, 5 Dec (AIM) – The General Command of the Mozambican police (PRM) has claimed that clashes between anti-government demonstrators and the police on Wednesday resulted in five deaths, while three other people were seriously injured.

The spokesperson for the General Command, Orlando Mudumune, told reporters on Wednesday evening that the clashes occurred in Maputo city and province, and in Zambezia and Nampula provinces.

He claimed that those shot dead by the police had been armed with stones, knives, machetes and similar objects.

“Once again, the country has been the stage of violent demonstrations, which have disturbed public order and security, and the free circulation of people and goods, following the call for a new wave of demonstrations by Venancio Mondlane”, said Mudumane.

Speaking from a hideout somewhere in Europe, Mondlane has called for eight days of demonstrations (4 – 11 December) in which roads, railways, ports and even airports, will be blocked.

The declared purpose of the protests is “to restore the truth about the elections”. Mondlane insists that he won the 9 October presidential elections, but has not yet produced the polling station minutes and results sheets that might prove this claim.

Mondlane disowned some of the tactics used by his followers, such as extorting money from motorists at improvised toll gates. He has said this repeatedly, but the extortion continues.

Mondlane insisted that joining his demonstration is “voluntary” – but that is not what it feels like to motorists who are threatened by mobs, if they do not display pro-Mondlane propaganda.

Mudumane said the purpose of the unrest was “to provoke chaos, terror, rebellion, violence and generalised public disorder”.

He claimed that those shot dead had been trying to seize guns from the police. A person acting in this way was not a demonstrator “but a criminal, a subversive, doing all he can to obtain military equipment in order to undertake still more criminal acts”.

He said the demonstrations had led to the invasion of 22 secondary school, where computer equipment was looted, making it impossible to hold the end-of-year examinations in these schools.

Five police posts were burnt down, as was a district court and a prison. About 100 inmates of this prison escaped.

Mudumane added that 20 people were detained as ringleaders of the riots, and efforts are under way to arrest others, who can be identified through videos in the possession of the police.

One of those shot dead was a minor who was killed in Beluluane on the outskirts of Maputo. The policeman who shot him was believed to be a member of the National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic).

A video that went viral on social media shows the 13 year old lying dead on the ground, after being shot in the head. According to local sources, the pupil was coming back from school when he joined a group of demonstrators.

When the Police started to act against the demonstrators, the pupil ran away but a police officer followed him and shot him.

This led to fury among Beluluane residents, who then blocked the road leading to the Mozal aluminium smelter, one of the most important industrial units in the country. Barricades and burning tyres were placed on the road used by Mozal trucks to carry aluminium ingots to Maputo port. This forced Mozal to suspend temporarily the movement of its vehicles.

By the time AIM reporters left Beluluane, at 22.00, the road was still closed. As a condition for re-opening the road, the demonstrators demanded that the police hand over tbe policeman who shot the child.

In the nearby city of Matola, rioting broke out in the neighbourhoods of Tsalala and Malhampswene. In Malhampswene, a police post was burnt down, and the demonstrators made it impossible to hold exams in the local secondary school. A bus belonging to the transport company Lalgy was set on fire, but protesters blamed this on tear gas grenades fired by the UIR (Rapid Intervention Unit – the Mozambican riot police).

Some of the worst violence occurred in Morrumbala district, in the central province of Zambezia. Here the district headquarters of the ruling Frelimo party was attacked and burnt down, as was the district office of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE).

The demonstrators also attacked the police station, the District Elections Commission (CDE), the district court, the Municipal Assembly, the home of the district police commander, and the local prison (where 100 prisoners were released). Two police vehicles were seized and the demonstrators rode around the town in them for much of the day, waving the guns they had taken from the police station.

Fear of the demonstrations led the Morrumbala district education authorities to cancel the 10th and 12th grade end-of-year exams.

In the northern city of Nampula, according to a report in the independent newssheet “Carta de Mocambique”, the UIR shot dead four young men. Initially, Nampula Central Hospital confirmed one death, out of 16 people admitted to the hospital with injuries, but the number later rose to four.

In the southern province of Inhambane, the police launched tear gas against pupils from the Cumbane Secondary School who were backing their teachers during the boycott of final exams in primary and secondary schools in protest at the alleged non-payment of the money that the government owes them for overtime.

In various schools in Inhambane, Gaza and Maputo provinces, the pupils joined their teachers in the demonstrations. But it was only in the Cumbane Secondary School that the Police decided to use tear gas against teachers and pupils alike.

“The pupils were making a noise in support of the teachers who had decided to boycott the final exams. But the Police decided to shoot against us all. We couldn’t understand the reason behind the police violence, they shoot in order to keep us quiet”, a local source told AIM.
(AIM)
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