Police claim plot under way to attack state assets

Maputo, 7 Dec (AIM) – The General Command of the Mozambican police (PRM) has claimed that a plan exists to attack and destroy vital and strategic State assets during this weekend.

Speaking to reporters in Maputo on Friday the spokesperson for the General Command, Orlando Mudumane, said these attacks will be led by members and supporters of the Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique (Podemos).

Podemos is the main party which supported the bid for the presidency by independent candidate Venancio Mondlane. Mudumane did not name any members of Podemos, and nor did he say exactly where the alleged attacks might take place.

He claimed that Podemos intended to attack police units and prisons in order to seize weaponry, and release prison inmates who would join its ranks.

“Such premeditated attacks and destruction will merit a due reaction from the Defence and Security Forces, dependent on the facts and in terms of the law”, declared Mudumane.

Drawing up a balance sheet of the previous 24 hours, he said the authorities had recorded 12 serious cases of disturbances of public order, in which two buildings had been destroyed by using Molotov cocktails.

He said that eight people had been detained, and their cases remitted to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

But Mudumane must have written this speech before news reached Maputo of the massive rioting in the cities of Chibuto and Chokwe in the southern province of Gaza.

In Chibuto, rioters burnt down the Pamodzi complex, which is believed to belong to the family of former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano.

The protesters also broke into the Chibuto jail and released about 80 prisoners.

According to the independent television station, STV, the rioters completely destroyed the Kwagatilo Hotel Resort – which is the largest shopping and tourist centre in the city. STV’s source said that over 1,000 rioters broke into the complex. “They destroyed the doors to the rooms and they stole everything”, he said.

Nothing remained of the shops, restaurants, tourist homes and leisure facilities. The 35 Kwagatilo workers now risk losing their jobs.

In Chokwe, two Frelimo Party offices, belonging to the party’s city and district committees were attacked and set on fire. Some streets were blocked with barricades and tyres were burnt. Almost all the shops in central Chokwe were vandalised and looted.

Rioting also broke out in the central province of Manica. The provincial police spokesperson, Mouzinho Manasse, told STV that the police came under a hail of stones when they tried to remove barricades in various parts of the province.

Eight policemen and one rioter needed medical treatment, and 46 rioters were detained.

In the northern province of Cabo Delgado, the police said that some of those involved in rioting in the provincial capital, Pemba, had been “infiltrated” from other provinces, notably Nampula.

Police spokesperson Aniceto Magome told reporters “we have information from the intelligence services that individuals who came from Nampula are leading these movements”.

Unusually, the police and Podemos held a joint press conference in Pemba to deny that the local branch of Podemos had anything to do with the rioting. The Podemos coordinator disowned all those who were destroying public and private property.
(AIM)
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