NO PROBLEM WITH ACCOUNTS - MOZAMBICAN AMBASSADOR

The Mozambican ambassador to the United States, Amelia Sumbana, has categorically rejected news reports that the embassy’s accounts in American banks have been frozen.Interviewed by phone in Friday’s edition of the independent daily “O Pais”, Sumbana said she knew that banks in Washington had frozen the accounts of some African embassies – but this action had not affected any Mozambican accounts.“There is a list circulating and Mozambique’s name is on it”, she said. “We don’t know where that list comes from, and it’s not addressed to anybody. What I can say is that nothing has happened to us. There has been no closure of our accounts”.She added that when the list of countries allegedly affected began to circulate, the Embassy contacted the US State Department and the bank where its accounts are held. Both the bank and the State Department “told us we are not affected”, Sumbana said.“We are, however, worried about what might happen over the coming days”, she added, “because we don’t know why the accounts of other countries were closed”.Sumbana’s statements are in line with what a senior official in the Mozambican Foreign Ministry told the daily paper “Noticias” – namely that the matter is worrying, because of the lack of explanation, but that Mozambique has not yet been affected.“This creates instability”, the official said. “The worst thing is that there is never any explanation. Some countries had their accounts closed from one day to the next. But as far as we’re concerned, our bank continues to say there’s no problem”.Tobias Bradford, the public affairs office at the US embassy in Maputo, told “Noticias” that three American commercial banks, namely the Bank of America, Citibank and J.P. Morgan Chase, had frozen the accounts or ended banking relations with some diplomatic missions – not only from Africa, but from other continents as well.He said these decisions were based on respect for US and international norms in the fight against money laundering and the fight against terrorism.“Those banks decided to freeze accounts of diplomatic missions that they thought were high risk”, said Bradford. “This happens, for example, when a client uses personal accounts for official business, or withdraws large sums of cash. But we know there is no information on any freezing of Mozambican accounts”.Bradford said the banks are private and are not directly controlled by the US government. Indeed, the State Department regretted what had happened, and is in dialogue with the banks “to identify other options”.“The US government is optimistic that there will be a positive solution”, he said, “because we know that several other banks are looking for diplomatic clients. We have hundreds of banks, and I am sure that that these diplomatic missions will soon find banking services in other US financial institutions”.