Hanlon: Freedom House accuses government of ‘human rights abuses’ in Tete & points to Renamo presence there

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Hanlon: Freedom House accuses government of ‘human rights abuses’ in Tete & points to Renamo presence there

7:34 CAT | 19 Dec 2016

Freedom House / These Dwellings of some Mozambican refugees who chose to stay in Kapise village rather than be moved on to Luwani Refugee Camp. Kapise village is located on the Mozambique-Malawi border, where many of the Mozambican refugees crossed into Malawi

“Security forces of the Mozambican government are committing gross human rights abuses against civilians” in Tete, leading people to cross the border into Malawi as refugees, says Freedom House in a new report. The report is based on interviews with 469 people in the Luwana refugee camp in Malawi.

But the report also shows that there is a significant presence of Renamo in parts of eastern Tete near the border with Malawi, who seem to move freely about the area. One woman said “Renamo soldiers stayed [in our village] for almost two years before the clashes began.” Another said that villages fed the Renamo fighters. Another said that Renamo warned them of upcoming attacks by government soldiers.

Luwana has had up to 10,000 refugees, but most people had returned home, so the number has dropped significantly to 2,351. This means the people interviewed are those who refused to return home. Of those, half (53%) said they or family members had been personally attacked by the security forces. They cited killings, sexual attacks and burning houses and grain stores. Several community leaders cited a football match in Zobue, on the border, where six people suspected of being Renamo were killed.

In many ways, local peasants are caught in the middle. One said “when Renamo forces passed [through communities] the Frelimo forces asked individuals about who passed through, and when we didn’t explain, the Frelimo forces would fight the villagers, and kill people.”

Freedom House is a conservative US agency which considers Israel and Taiwan “free countries” and Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe “partly free”. The report “Mozambique: Violence, Refugees, and the Luwani Camp” is on https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/mozambique-refugees-luwani-camp-in-malawi

By Joseph Hanlon

Source: News reports & clippings