Maputo, 15 Apr (AIM) – Mozambique’s former presidential candidate, Venancio Mondlane, has threatened that he will call protests “100 times worse” than the demonstrations that followed the December announcement of election results widely regarded as fraudulent.
He was speaking in the central city of Quelimane on Monday, a day after unidentified assailants shot and seriously injured one of his close supporters, the musician Joel Amaral (better known by his stage name MC Trufafa).
Doctors at Quelimane Central Hospital say that Amaral is out of danger, but he remains in the intensive care unit.
Speaking to a crowd many thousands strong outside the hospital, Mondlane said he is warning President Daniel Chapo “who was put into the Presidency by the riot police, that this is his last chance. The next time there is a victim we shall activate Turbo V24 Ultra”. (This is the term Mondlane is using for the next phase of street demonstrations).
“We are waiting for another death or injury. What will happen then will be 100 times worse than the past”, he threatened.
According to civil society organisations monitoring the violence, the clashes between protesters and police have so far claimed over 380 lives, most of them killed by police bullets.
Mondlane said these deaths include 47 of his local coordinators. “We have complained to the Attorney-General’s Office (PGR), but so far justice has not been done”, he declared.
The government, however, has only admitted 80 deaths. It put the material damage done during the unrest at 1,677 shops and other commercial establishments, 177 schools and 23 health units.
Mondlane also claimed that he had been “obliged” to shake hands with Chapo at their meeting in Maputo on 23 March
He said he had agreed to the meeting “because they guaranteed that the harassment, the deaths and the kidnappings would stop. But with what happened to Joel Amaral, are they complying with this agreement?”
The murders of opposition activists are widely believed to be the work of death squads operating inside the police force. This is not cheap propaganda – one of the death squads was caught in 2019, in the southern city of Xai-Xai, after the assassination of a civil society activist, and all its members turned out to be members of the police, some of whom are currently serving long prison sentences.
All the political parties represented in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, including the ruling Frelimo Party, have condemned the attempt on Amaral’s life.
The Frelimo political commission, meeting in Maputo on Monday, said it “vehemently repudiates this act”, and called on the authorities to investigate the attack “with all due speed”.
But Frelimo then warned against the supposed risks of “manipulation” and called for “calm and serenity”.
Mondlane has also called for three days of uninterrupted marches in Quelimane. This protest is also backed by the Mayor of Quelimane, Manuel de Araujo, although he is curently absent from the city, attending a conference on climate change in Seoul.
“Yesterday it was Joel Amaral. Tomorrow it will be me. The day after tomorrow it will be you”, declared the Mayor. “Even here in Seoul, your voice is being heard. We are receiving messages of support and solidarity from various corners of the globe”.
(AIM)
Pf/ (550)
