Tete: Violent clashes between civilians and military over land

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Tete: Violent clashes between civilians and military over land

7:23 CAT | 23 Aug 2021

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [in file CoM]

A land dispute between the military and civilians has ended with shootings and attacks in the Chingodzi neighbourhood, on the outskirts of Tete, in Mozambique. Incident was to have been discussed this Thursday, but the police and the local authorities failed to turn up for the meeting.

Local residents claim the right to several hectares of land next to the military police headquarters in the city of Tete, central Mozambique. They say they were born there, grew up and developed agricultural practices there, and inherited the land from their ancestors.

Now they accuse the military of grabbing the land, claiming that it belongs to the barracks and that housing and other activities are prohibited. They even say that the same land is being sold to civilians and being distributed for the military themselves to build homes.

Dozens of indignant people took to the streets on Tuesday (17 August) to claim their land before about 50 military police cracked down on the demonstration, beating people – including elderly women – and firing more than 100 real bullets to disperse the crowd.

“We want justice”

“We want justice. We don’t want to see these things anymore, so we’re taking the case forward to solve the problem for us, because if we had just been like that, yesterday we could have died,” one resident told DW.

“There were shootings here yesterday, there were around 45 soldiers who came here, all of them armed, found us here and started shooting no matter how, they started to beat us and then we were taken to the barracks, we arrived there in handcuffs and they beat us again,” another protester reported, adding that now “he can’t walk” due to the violence he suffered.

A meeting was scheduled for this Thursday morning (19 August) to bring together those who feel wronged, the military police and Tete municipal council, but the latter two failed to arrive for the meeting, without explanation.

DW Africa tried to contact the city council’s Office for Urbanisation, but it failed to make itself available for any clarification. We also tried, without success, to obtain explanations from the head of the residential unit, accused by the population of cooperating with the military in the sale of the land.

“Now I can’t say anything, I can’t say anything now,” he said.
But the victims contest this ‘unavailability’, demanding: “He as the boss is saying he can’t speak now, will he speak when? Speak now, speak now!”

Will the case go to the Attorney General’s Office?

Lawyer Bento Salazar condemns the military’s action, and had some advice to offer: “I recommend that every citizen who feels aggrieved approaches the Attorney’s Office and files a report, in a dispassionate, detailed manner, including the names and characteristics of every FADM member who participated in this criminal act.”

Meanwhile, Chingodzi neighbourhood awaits a solution to its land dispute.

Source: Deutsche Welle