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Screen grab: CDD Moçambique
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), a Mozambican non-governmental organization (NGO), this Friday described the human rights situation in the country in the last quarter of 2023 as “desolate”, accusing the police of having killed innocent citizens.
“The situation is desolate. The Mozambican state, through its police, the rapid intervention forces, are the main instrument of abuse and violation of human rights, with the dominant note of having killed Mozambican citizens during this period,” director of the CDD Adriano Nuvunga told a press conference.
Nuvunga was speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the reports on the “Situation of Human Rights in the Fourth Quarter of 2023” and the “Situation of Human Rights During the 2023 Local Elections”, prepared by the NGO.
The director of the CDD pointed to the killing of citizens by police in Namicopo neighbourhood in Nampula province, in the north of the country, during opposition demonstrations against the results of the municipal elections on October 11, as proof of disrespect for fundamental rights.
“I was in Namicopo, where the Mozambican state, through its police, deliberately killed Mozambicans,” he highlighted, arguing that “the state must be taken to court”.
He also pointed to the December murder of journalist João Chamusse at his home in Maputo, as another example of the deterioration of the human rights situation in Mozambique.
“Nowhere does anyone have to die (murdered), but in particular when they are a journalist,” he stressed. Following the murder of João Chamusse, the police made arrests, but there are no known further developments in relation to the case.
The director of the CDD accused the police of having “death squads”, also blaming the corporation’s agents for the death last July of young Massacar Abacar, known as ‘Cebolinha’, in a cell at a police station in Maputo. At the time, police authorities said that ‘Cebolinha’ died of natural causes, denying any responsibility for the death.
“We are going to take the consequences [to those responsible for human rights violations], we are going to take cases of abuse to the PGR [Attorney General’s Office], because the state has to be held responsible,” highlighted Adriano Nuvunga, pointing out that the weapons of the police are supposed to protect citizens, not kill them.
Human rights lawyer Yara Lamúgio, who presented the report on “Situation of Human Rights During the 2023 Local Elections”, said that “the fourth quarter was the scene of successive human rights violations”. The abuses “took place arbitrarily”, with an emphasis on violations against “the right to life and the direct right to protest”.
Lusa contacted the general command of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique this Friday, who said he felt that the authorities had already made a full statement regarding the episodes that occurred during the electoral period.
At the end of December, the general commander of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM) Bernardino Rafael apologized for the deaths caused by the authorities, saying that they were “unpredictable” episodes and that the corporation’s ambition was to guarantee order.
“There are always unpredictable situations and we have had incidents here [Chiure] in which a young man lost his life. The police regret this occurrence and (…) we apologize for this incident and several others recorded,” Rafael declared during a rally in the province of Cabo Delgado.
“It is not normal in the world for the general commander of the police to appear to apologize, but, because we want to bring about this humanization of your police, it is a moral, social and spiritual obligation of the general commander to apologize for the mistakes made by police officers. We ask forgiveness from all the families for whom we did not provide the service we should have,” Bernardino Rafael said at the time.
Watch.
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