Parliamentary deputies of
Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party on Wednesday called on Attorney-General
Beatriz Buchili to take action against the main opposition party, the rebel
movement Renamo, and even to outlaw it.During the debate on Buchili’s annual
report on the state of justice to the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of
the Republic, Lucilia Nota Hama, who is a member of the Frelimo Political
Commission, declared that Buchili’s office must take measures to hold Renamo
criminally responsible for the death and destruction caused by the actions of
its illegal militia.The Mozambican constitution, she pointed out, forbids
political parties from using force to change the political order. “Renamo is in
gross violation of both the Constitution and the law on political parties”, she
said. “The Attorney-General must take action against the crimes committed by
Renamo and its leader (Afonso Dhlakama)”. Hama urged Renamo to “take the
path of peace and reconciliation”, by accepting unconditionally President
Filipe Nyusi’s offer of face-to-face talks with Dhlakama.Patricio M’pangai went
further and called for Renamo to be banned.
“Renamo is deliberately killing
citizens, looting the goods of the population, and destroying social and
economic infrastructures”, he said. “Renamo prevents schools from functioning
in several parts of the centre of the country in a clear demonstration that it
wants to plunge our country into pain and poverty”. Renamo “is a criminal
organization”, M’pangai declared. “It is permanently degrading human values
such as love for one’s neighbor, solidarity, compassion and mutual respect”. Because
of its behaviour, “there is no more room for it to enjoy the rights of a
political party”, and Buchili should remove “its apparent impunity”.He was
seconded by Jose Coffe, who said Renamo should be declared an illegal
organization, and Dhlakama held responsible for the crimes committed by his
militia.“For how long must we have a Renamo acting as a chameleon, with men in
parliament in suits and ties, speaking in the name of the people, while others,
under the command of the Renamo leader, take the lives of Mozambicans?”, he
asked.Renamo deputy Antonio Muchanga accused Frelimo of responsibility for two
attempts on Dhlakama’s life in September and threatened that Renamo “will open
fire on the places where Frelimo leaders live”.
Mario Ali attacked what he called “the colonialist Frelimo regime”, repeatedly calling Frelimo both “colonialist” and “communist”.This was too much for the spokesperson of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Edmundo Galiza-Maros Junior, who pointed out “it was Frelimo that expelled the colonialist regime from Mozambique”.
Mario Ali attacked what he called “the colonialist Frelimo regime”, repeatedly calling Frelimo both “colonialist” and “communist”.This was too much for the spokesperson of the Frelimo parliamentary group, Edmundo Galiza-Maros Junior, who pointed out “it was Frelimo that expelled the colonialist regime from Mozambique”.
As for Renamo’s deliberate conflation
of Frelimo with the army and the police, Galiza-Matos retorted that Frelimo is
a political party that has no weapons, while the defence and security forces
contains “people who come from Renamo and quite possible from the MDM
(Mozambique Democratic Movement) and other parties”. The Mozambican armed
forces (FADM) were created in 1994 out of a merger of volunteers’ from the old
government army, the FAM/FPLM, and from Renamo and several Renamo officers
remain in senior positions in the FADM. People who join the defence forces
today are not asked which political party they support.The army and police,
Galiza-Matos told the Renamo benches, “are defending the people against what
you are doing”. The latest Renamo attack had come at 02.00 on Wednesday morning
in Mossurize district, in the central province of Manica, when a local Frelimo
secretary had been murdered. The MDM concentrated its fire on the failure
by prosecutors to act against those involved in the government guaranteed loan
of 850 million US dollars to the Mozambique Tuna Company (EMATUM). Thanks to an
MDM intervention in the Assembly a year ago, Buchili’s office opened a case
file on EMATUM. But since then nothing much has happened and the case remains
at the stage of “preliminary investigation”.MDM deputy Jose Manuel de Sousa
described the EMATUM loan as “the greatest financial scandal in Mozambican
history”. Yet a year after the case had been opened, it had fallen into
“complete stagnation”.Indeed, the fact that a case file was open in Buchili’s
office had led the Assembly to reject a proposal for a parliamentary commission
of inquiry into EMATUM on the grounds that the matter was sub judice. A
second MDM deputy, Geraldo Carvalho, declared “the Attorney-General’s Office
must not be an obstacle to justice. We want a genuinely independent and
operational prosecution service”.
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