Tempers flared in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday when opposition deputies tried to revive the discredited diplomatic cables signed by former US charge d’affaires Todd Chapman, which accuse senior Mozambican political figures, including President Armando Guebuza and his predecessor, Joaquim Chissano, of involvement in drug traffickingThe cables were published on the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks last year. They cast fascinating light on the bungling and incompetence that passes for diplomacy in the United States, but provided nothing that could be regarded as any startling new revelation about crime and corruption in Mozambique.Most of the truthful claims about drug trafficking in Chapman’s cables are years old and were originally published in the Mozambican press. The rest is cocktail party gossip, careless factual mistakes and downright fabrication.The longest and most detailed of Chapman’s four cables contains a number of sensational claims, including an allegation that Guebuza took a kickback of up to 50 million US dollars during the handover of the Cahora Bassa dam to Mozambican control.Chapman said these claims were imparted to him in a conversation with an unnamed businessman. So on Thursday, in the debate on the annual report to the Assembly from Attorney-General Augusto Paulino, Renamo revisited the Wikileaks cables, and demanded that Paulino investigate them.Armindo Milaco retailed several of Chapman’s claims against Guebuza, and declared categorically “the Americans are not lying”. The American embassy itself, however, steadfastly refuses to make any comment on the leaked cables, and will not say whether anything contained in them is true or false.Milaco claimed that Paulino is afraid of “the great barons”. He cited as one such baron businessman Momade Bachir Sulemane, accused by the Obama administration last June of being a drug “kingpin”. Bachir’s name was added to the US list of narco-traffickers, although he loudly protested his innocence.In his report, Paulino said that, in response to the American allegations, a team from the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC) was set up, under the supervision of a prosecutor, to investigate the facts. That investigation is still ongoing, and has involved contacts, not only with the Americans, but also with other, unnamed countries with expertise in drug trafficking. No charges have been laid against Bachir, or anyone else, but the main point of the exercise, as far as Paulino was concerned was to verify how bodies such as the airports, ports and customs services are functioning, and to take steps to prevent future trafficking.
Such arguments did not impress Renamo. “There are untouchables in Mozambique”, declared Milaco.He’s right – and one of the untouchables is Armindo Milaco. For in 2005, the police in the northern province of Cabo Delgado issued a warrant for the arrest of Milaco, in connection with riots that followed a disputed mayoral by-election in the town of Mocimboa da Praia, in which at least 12 people died.But Milaco did not see the inside of a police cell, and has never answered for his role in the riots. Instead, he disappeared to Maputo. Now, as a deputy, he enjoys immunity from arrest – and to date the prosecutors have not asked the Assembly to lift Milaco’s immunity.The repeated attempts by Milaco to link Guebuza with drug trafficking infuriated the benches of the ruling Frelimo Party. Joaquim Verissimo accused Renamo “of undermining the culture of peace and of distorting history”. They were dancing to the tune “of their bosses – the enemies of yesterday are the enemies of today”.Milaco had spoke repeatedly of the Americans, “but this is a Mozambican forum”, said Verissimo. “He’s working for his bosses”.The head of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Margarida Talapa, said she was “absolutely indignant” at the baseless allegations against Guebuza based on nothing but gossip and bad faith. She urged Paulino to prosecute Milaco for defaming the head of state. This would be possible, since a clause in the 1991 state security law classifies libeling key figures of state as a security offence. However, any such move could well backfire, transforming Milaco into a martyr. Other Frelimo deputies to whom AIM spoke doubted the wisdom of such a move.Renamo immediately accused Frelimo of giving orders to Paulino. They retorted with renewed demands that Paulino investigate the Wikileaks claims, but did not explain how anyone can investigate documents whose authors, American diplomats, refuse to talk about them.The head of the Renamo group, Angelina Enoque, claimed that Talapa had made a “threatening appeal” to the Attorney-General in order to silence Renamo’s voice. “We cannot accept threats”, she declared.Paulino, however, made no promises to either side. “We will give the matter due treatment”, he said.As for the open claims by Renamo that Bachir is “a great criminal”, Paulino warned that the Mozambican legal system is “totally committed to the presumption of innocence”. The constitution enshrined the principle that all accused persons must be presumed innocent until proved guilty in a court of law. To date Bachir had not been charged with anything, and so could not even be considered a suspect.
“We operate on the basis of facts, of case files, and not on the basis of presumptions”, he stressed.But where Renamo had alleged specific facts, his office would investigate. Thus Milaco had claimed that two Renamo offices in the central province of Zambezia had been burnt down by community policemen, one on the instructions of the local district administrator. Paulino assured the Renamo benches that he had taken note of these claims.(Paul Fauvet)
Such arguments did not impress Renamo. “There are untouchables in Mozambique”, declared Milaco.He’s right – and one of the untouchables is Armindo Milaco. For in 2005, the police in the northern province of Cabo Delgado issued a warrant for the arrest of Milaco, in connection with riots that followed a disputed mayoral by-election in the town of Mocimboa da Praia, in which at least 12 people died.But Milaco did not see the inside of a police cell, and has never answered for his role in the riots. Instead, he disappeared to Maputo. Now, as a deputy, he enjoys immunity from arrest – and to date the prosecutors have not asked the Assembly to lift Milaco’s immunity.The repeated attempts by Milaco to link Guebuza with drug trafficking infuriated the benches of the ruling Frelimo Party. Joaquim Verissimo accused Renamo “of undermining the culture of peace and of distorting history”. They were dancing to the tune “of their bosses – the enemies of yesterday are the enemies of today”.Milaco had spoke repeatedly of the Americans, “but this is a Mozambican forum”, said Verissimo. “He’s working for his bosses”.The head of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Margarida Talapa, said she was “absolutely indignant” at the baseless allegations against Guebuza based on nothing but gossip and bad faith. She urged Paulino to prosecute Milaco for defaming the head of state. This would be possible, since a clause in the 1991 state security law classifies libeling key figures of state as a security offence. However, any such move could well backfire, transforming Milaco into a martyr. Other Frelimo deputies to whom AIM spoke doubted the wisdom of such a move.Renamo immediately accused Frelimo of giving orders to Paulino. They retorted with renewed demands that Paulino investigate the Wikileaks claims, but did not explain how anyone can investigate documents whose authors, American diplomats, refuse to talk about them.The head of the Renamo group, Angelina Enoque, claimed that Talapa had made a “threatening appeal” to the Attorney-General in order to silence Renamo’s voice. “We cannot accept threats”, she declared.Paulino, however, made no promises to either side. “We will give the matter due treatment”, he said.As for the open claims by Renamo that Bachir is “a great criminal”, Paulino warned that the Mozambican legal system is “totally committed to the presumption of innocence”. The constitution enshrined the principle that all accused persons must be presumed innocent until proved guilty in a court of law. To date Bachir had not been charged with anything, and so could not even be considered a suspect.
“We operate on the basis of facts, of case files, and not on the basis of presumptions”, he stressed.But where Renamo had alleged specific facts, his office would investigate. Thus Milaco had claimed that two Renamo offices in the central province of Zambezia had been burnt down by community policemen, one on the instructions of the local district administrator. Paulino assured the Renamo benches that he had taken note of these claims.(Paul Fauvet)
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