Alice Mabota condemns silence in the face of injustice: “People only murmur” | Mozambique

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Alice Mabota condemns silence in the face of injustice: “People only murmur” | Mozambique

5:00 CAT | 02 Feb 2021

Photo: Dossiers & Factos / Albino Mahumana

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” This is one of the most striking phrases of Martin Luther King, a pastor who, between 1955 and 1968, was one of the most ardent civil rights defenders in the United States of America. This week, the mythical phrase was echoed, albeit indirectly, by Alice Mabota, a human rights fighter in Mozambique.

Mabota notes that the country has regressed in terms of respect for human rights, and criticises the citizens, who no longer denounce or protest, but only “murmur”.

“Today, all voices are silent”, is how Alice Mabota denounces the silence of citizens regarding the violation of human rights. The veteran activist, who was speaking at the launch of the Mozambican Bar Association’s report on human rights between 2018 and 2019, expressed disappointment at the country’s alleged retreat.

“I feel frustrated because in the 1990s, with the entry into force of the current Constitution, It seemed that Mozambique was moving towards improving its human rights and citizens’ situation. But today, more than 30 years later, I can see that the citizens have retreated”, said the activist who chaired the Mozambican Human Rights League for many years.

“If yesterday any citizen could claim his/her rights, today all voices are silent, all people do is murmur on the inside,” Mabota continued, characterising the situation as “terrible”. For the activist, “today people are dying of boredom”, in that they no longer exercise the right to say:”this is wrong” – something which could also work an escape, she says.

“Cabo Delgado is another State within Mozambique”

Still on the path of human rights, Alice Mabota addressed the situation in Cabo Delgado, which has been plagued by terrorism for over three years. She said that until today no one dares go to Cabo Delgado to understand what is happening and to come up with concrete data. In the opinion of the human rights activist, this is because “everything is undermined”. Mabota refers to real mines, but also to “a battalion of secret agents who do not allow you to circulate and find out”, she pointed out, before adding that “Cabo Delgado is another State within Mozambique”.

Police in the vanguard of human rights violations

Another of the participants in the event was Adriano Nuvunga, Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD). For Nuvunga, the police have been used by those in power to promote a “systematic violation of human rights”, which makes the daily lives of Mozambicans “very painful”.

Anuvungaa — *Photo: Dossiers & Factos / Albino Mahumana*

As an example, the director of the CDD points out the famous “death squads” which, in his view, are responsible for the kidnappings and persecution and murder of journalists and social activists.

“They are branches of this corporation that are in the vanguard of human rights violations in Mozambique”, he said.

In his speech, the academic also commented on the use of the force by police in the context of restrictions imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19.

It has been the police, he said, who, “in clear abuse of power, extract products from the poorest people, in a context where the Mozambican state has given nothing to people to be able to stay at home,” he said.

Also read: Mozambique: Government fails to protect human rights – lawyers

The subject of Cabo Delgado also warranted some consideration by the professor, who accuses the State of “having hid its head”. Nuvunga, who is knowledgeable of the situation on the ground, claims that the State is not there to support the population. For the activist, the solution lies in the unity and commitment of the Mozambicans in the fight against corruption, because, he argues, “all the problems we have been witnessing have to do with the corrupt use of state power”.

Despite pointing out some progress, the Mozambican Bar Association [OAM] report on human rights concludes that, overall, the situation in Mozambique is worrying.

By Arão Nualane

Source: Dossiers & Factos