Police claim two policemen murdered in Nampula

Maputo, 10 Jan (AIM) – The Mozambican police (PRM) have claimed that two policemen were murdered in the northern province of Nampula.

At a Maputo press conference on Thursday, national police spokesperson Orlando Mudumane, said unknown assailants intercepted the two police agents as they were coming off duty in the village of Micane, in Moma district.

“They were beaten to death, and their bodies were then burnt”, he said.

Mudumane urged the public to remain calm and “to collaborate in denouncing any acts which disturb public order and tranquillity, and the free movement of people and goods”.

But it was the police, in full public view, who on Thursday morning attacked the large crowds packing the streets of central Maputo to welcome former presidential candidate Venancio Mondlane who returned to the country after more than two months of self-imposed exile.

According to the civil society platform, Decide, at least three people died and six others were injured when the police opened fire on the crowds of Mondlane supporters.

The violence began even before the Qatar Airways plane carrying Mondlane touched down, with the police firing tear gas grenades into peaceful crowds who posed no obvious threat to security.

Later, as Mondlane’s motorcade stopped at the Estrela Vermelha market, so that he could address his followers, the police fired live ammunition. It was here that at least two of the victims died.

Mudumane claimed that those welcoming Mondlane were the same people who had committed acts of sabotage and looting in December, but offered no evidence for this allegation.

He also said the police were defending the airport which he described as a vital strategic asset. But Mondlane’s followers did not make any attempt to breach airport security, and airport staff accompanied Mondlane as he left the airport premises.

Mondlane has not yet explained what he was doing in his months of absence. He arrived in Maputo on a non-stop flight from the Qatari capital of Doha, but that does not mean that he had spent the previous two months in the Middle East.

Travellers from Europe find the Doha-Maputo flights a convenient and relatively cheap way of reaching Mozambique. Mondlane may thus have been living in Europe since his departure from Mozambique in late October.

At Maputo airport, Mondlane insisted that he wanted to take part in dialogue with the country’s other political forces. “I am here, in flesh and blood, to say that, if you want a dialogue with me, here I am”, he said.

As he was speaking, President Filipe Nyusi was welcoming representatives of the country’s main political parties to a meeting in the presidential offices. Nyusi had invited the top leaders of Podemos (Optimistic Party for the Development of Mozambique), Albino Forquilha, of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Lutero Simango, of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, and of Nova Democracia (ND), Salomao Muchanga, to the meeting, as well as the President-Elect and General Secretary of the ruling Frelimo Party, Daniel Chapo.

The meeting chose Chapo as its spokesperson, and he extended a hand of friendship to Mondlane. He announced the opening of “a table of political dialogue” with “the presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane” about the situation in the country.

One potential obstacle is that Mondlane is not a member of any party. Although Podemos supported his bid for the Presidency, he has never joined Podemos. The frequent media description of Mondlane as “leader of the opposition” is not accurate.

In the Mozambican legal order, the leader of the opposition is the head of the party that was runner-up in the latest parliamentary elections. That used to be the President of Renamo, Ossufo Momade, but in the incoming parliament it will be Albino Forquilha.

Mondlane also proclaimed himself as “the President elected by the people”, placed his hand on a Bible and swore an improvised oath of office.
(AIM)
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