Maputo, 27 Dec (AIM) – The death toll from the Christmas Day riot at Maputo Central prison has risen to 39, according to a Friday report on the independent television station, STV.
37 of the dead were prisoners and two were prison guards. In the breakout, 1,534 inmates escaped. Contrary to the initial reports, the escapees were not all from the central prison: 98 escaped from the adjacent Maputo top security prison and are believed to be the most dangerous of the men on the run.
By Friday morning, only 170 of the escapees had been recaptured. The rest had dispersed into the nearby Maputo and Matola neighbourhoods, causing panic among the residents.
There were disturbing reports that some of the recaptured prisoners were not taken back to their cells, but were summarily executed.
The Mozambique Bar Association (OAM) was among those who believed that the authorities had committed “a deliberately criminal act”.
The OAM could not understand the passivity of the defence and security forces, faced with a complete breakdown of law and order.
“The looting of public and private property that we are witnessing under the inert gaze of the defence and security forces, the escape of prisoners from Machava Prison, the recapture of some, and the subsequent execution of some of these recaptured prisoners—unjustifiable given that they were already in the hands and under the control of the authorities—constitutes a deliberately criminal act. This repugnant and unjustified conduct reveals a sick society where leadership has completely lost its authority”, said an OAM release cited in Friday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”.
If the country is to function normally again, then “clear-minded leadership” is needed, the OAM added, as well as “a spirit committed to the changes that this new era demands”.
By Friday morning, there were no longer any barricades on the main roads of Maputo and Matola. Self-exiled presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane, had demanded a complete shutdown of economic activity until Friday. Now, some citizens are trying to return to work, and to clear up the mess left by the Christmas rioting.
As it became easier to move around, so the true scale of the destruction and looting became clear. The independent television station STV visited an industrial complex in Matola, in which the destruction was almost total. The looters stole bags of maize flour processed by one of the factories, and then systematically wrecked the equipment, and stripped the company’s vehicles of everything that could be resold – such as tyres, headlights, wing mirrors, and windscreen wipers. Then they set the cars on fire, leaving nothing but heaps of twisted metal.
An adjacent printing company contained nothing edible – but the rioters destroyed it anyway, smashing machinery and stealing boxloads of documents.
This destruction has nothing to do with opposition to electoral fraud, the supposed reason for the rage of Mondlane and his supporters. Instead, it is economic sabotage, intended to cripple the Mozambican economy.
All banks across the country remain closed, and there is a shortage of cash at ATMs. Major banks have issued notices to their clients stating that branches will remain closed until further notice.
Adding to the misery is a fuel shortage. This is not an absolute shortage, but a decision by the owners of petrol stations to close their establishments while there is any danger of renewed rioting. Earlier in the week several Maputo fuel pumps went up in smoke.
So long queues of vehicles built up at those petrol stations still open. Reports from the northern city of Nampula said that some profiteers bought petrol at the pumps, only to sell it on to other motorists at speculative prices.
Mondlane again urged protesters not to destroy businesses or loot shops but to focus their demonstrations on political targets.
“Our focus is the Presidential Palace, the ministries, the Frelimo party headquarters, and the electoral bodies, including the Constitutional Council,” he said, claiming that “these are the entities that have brought misery to the country. That is where we must demonstrate.”
This seems to give the green light to Mondlane’s supporters to attack and torch local Frelimo offices, several of which have gone up in flames over the past fortnight.
“Our protests will not stop; they will continue and intensify. We must not step back; we must move forward,” Mondlane said during a live Facebook broadcast, transmitted from an undisclosed location.
Mondlane is believed to be hiding somewhere in Europe – quite possibly in Portugal, where he enjoys the open support of the far-right political party, Chega, which makes no secret of its nostalgia for the colonial-fascist regime overthrown in Lisbon in 1974.
(AIM)
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