WIKILEAKS: US EMBASSY DECLINES COMMENT

The United States Embassy in Maputo on Thursday declined to comment on the content of secret cables from the embassy released by the whistle-blowing organisation, Wikileaks.Three of the cables mostly concern drug trafficking in Mozambique, while the fourth concerns a conversation the former charge d’affaires at the embassy, Todd Chapman, had with an unnamed disgruntled businessman making a series of allegations against President Armando Guebuza.The embassy’s Public Affair’s Officer, Tobias Bradford, told reporters “we don’t talk about the details of classified or allegedly classified information”.But it was certainly true “that we are concerned about narco-trafficking in Mozambique”.In June, US President Barack Obama named Mozambican businessman Mohamed Bachir Suleman as a drug baron under a US law, the Kingpin Act of 1999, which makes it possible for the government to impose financial and economic sanctions against foreign drug traffickers.Bradford said there had been no change since then. Bachir remained on the US list of “Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers”.Bradford stressed that putting people on this list was not a matter taken lightly. It was “a very rigorous process”, which involved several US federal agencies. He thought the investigations which had led to the naming of Bachir as a drug baron were “very trustworthy”.A second Mozambican businessman suspected of drug trafficking, Momed Khalid Ayoob, was arrested in Swaziland on 1 December in possession of 18 million rands (about 2.6 million US dollars) in banknotes. A Swazi court released him on bail on Wednesday.“We are reading about and following this case with interest”, said Bradford. “We hope it will be investigated by the Mozambican government”.Both Bachir and the Ayoob family are mentioned as drug traffickers in the cables released by Wikileaks.Asked whether the leaked cables might damage US relations with Mozambique, Bradford replied “We have worked hard to achieve good relations with Mozambique that can survive difficult matters”.He condemned the publication of classified information, since it “could put individuals and relations at risk”. He recognised, however, that it was not Wikileaks itself that had leaked the cables, but somebody within the United States. The decision by Wikileaks to publish was “a wrong choice”.The US authorities were still trying to trace the source of the leak, Bradford said, and were also “working on ways to strengthen our security systems”.