Maputo, 29 Dec (AIM) – The Mozambican government announced on Saturday that it has set up a Commission of Inquiry to investigate the mass escape of 1,534 inmates last Wednesday from the Maputo Central Prison and the adjacent top security prison.
But human rights organisations want the inquiry to concentrate on the massacre of prisoners after they were recaptured.
The Commission of Inquiry seems doomed to failure right from the start, since there is no agreement on basic facts.
The Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) argues that, in addition to the 33 prisoners who died during the breakout itself many more were executed after they had been recaptured.
Deputy Justice Minister Filimao Suaze, who visited the prisons on Saturday, categorically denies that there was any massacre or summary executions. However, videos are circulating on social media showing men supposed to be recaptured prisoners before and after they were murdered.
Suaze told reporters that the Commission of Inquiry is already working and will present a detailed report on the mass breakout. He declined to reveal the composition of the Commission.
He said it would investigate how it was possible for such a large number of prisoners to escape at the same time “if this was because of the negligence of some of our colleagues, or whether there was any outside collaboration”.
Suaze promised that the Commission would in detail at the deaths that occurred during the breakout. It would look at the matter “case by case, to understand what happened”, he said.
He claimed that, during the mass escape many prisoners suffered severe injuries and died later.
“Some could not resist and lost their lives”, said Suaze. “This is a matter we would like to treat with some care, so as not to throw more dust into people’s eyes”.
He categorically denied that there was any plan to murder the prisoners. But this denial is unlikely to be taken seriously, unless there is a convincing explanation for the incriminating videos.
Suaze claimed that, by midday Saturday, 280 prisoners had returned to the jails. Some had been recaptured, while others returned voluntarily. Suaze said that some of the escapees had contacted their lawyers to negotiate a return to the cells, because they feared reprisals. He insisted that they have nothing to fear – at least, not from the authorities. Stories are circulating, however, that the ringleaders of the breakout threatened that anyone who did not join them would be killed.
(AIM)
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