Freedom House denounces “gross human rights abuses” of Mozambican refugees

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Freedom House denounces “gross human rights abuses” of Mozambican refugees

10:03 CAT | 19 Dec 2016

Freedom House Facebook (File photo) / Freedom House President Mark P. Lagon

The US organisation Freedom House has accused Mozambican defense and security forces of perpetrating “gross human rights abuses”, including killings, forcing thousands of Mozambicans to seek refuge in Malawi.

“Security forces of the Mozambican government are committing gross human rights abuses against civilians in central Mozambique, leading people to cross the border into Malawi as refugees,” a Freedom House report released on Thursday says.

According to the report, 85 percent of the 469 people interviewed in October at the Luwani refugee camp in southeastern Malawi identified the perpetrators of attacks as “Frelimo soldiers” (the party in government), and said that killing was “the main type of violence”.

The abuses stem from the “little-known conflict” between government forces and the armed wing of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the largest opposition party, which demands the governance of six Mozambican provinces, alleging fraud in the 2014 general elections.

“Refugees described family members being tied by their wrists and ankles by government troops, thrown into their homes, and then burned alive,” said Lynn Fredriksson, director of Southern Africa program for Freedom House, quoted in the document.

“Other atrocities include shootings, sexual violence, kidnapping and family separation,” the report urges the Mozambican government to “end this violence against its own citizens, reign in its forces and make a serious commitment to the peace negotiations to end this conflict”.

Abuses against civilians by Defence and Security Forces had already been denounced by other organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the Mozambican Human Rights League and the UN High Commission for Refugees.

According to Freedom House, “violence against civilians continues and new refugees are fleeing” to Malawi, where 2,351 people remain in the Luwani camp, compared with around 12,000 at the end of last year.

In April, President Filipe Nyusi of Mozambique announced that Mozambique and Malawi would create a joint commission to resolve the refugees’ situation and create conditions for their return.

Of those interviewed by Freedom House, more than half of the refugees said they or their families were attacked in their villages, most of them in Tete province bordering Malawi. In all, 71 percent expressed their intention to return to Mozambique, but only after the signing of a peace agreement between the government and Renamo.

In May, Freedom House had already expressed concern about the situation of refugees in Malawi and “credible reports of rape, summary executions and the destruction of villages by the government”.

At the time , more than 20 bodies were discovered in two common graves in Macossa district, Manica province, one of the worst affected by the conflict, whose cause of death remains unknown. Another mystery concerns an alleged mass grave containing more than one hundred corpses, reported by farmers in Gorongosa district but never found.

The central region of Mozambique has been the scene of clashes between Renamo’s armed wing and the Defence and Security Forces, as well as mutual denunciations of abductions and assassinations of political leaders on both sides.

Authorities have blamed Renamo for several attacks on civilian targets and ambushes on main roads in the center of the country, where passage is conditional on mandatory military escorts, and the opposition party accuses the government of conducting military operations in the area where its leader, Afonso Dhlakama, is presumed to be in hiding.

Read the full report here:

https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/mozambique-refugees-luwani-camp-in-malawi

Source: Lusa