Human Rights Watch regrets murder of Renamo member and says it is not the only case

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Human Rights Watch regrets murder of Renamo member and says it is not the only case

1:40 CAT | 11 Oct 2016

Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday deplored the murder of Renamo member Jeremias Pondeca, while recalling that there are ten other political assassinations still unsolved in Mozambique.

“It is really a shame he (Jeremias Pondeca) lost his life in this barbaric way,” researcher for Mozambique and Angola in the human rights organisation Zenaida Machado said.

Jeremias Pondeca, a member of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) peace negotiations delegation and the Council of State of Mozambique, was killed on Saturday in Maputo.

“We regret even more that the authorities always have difficulty finding the authors of these crimes, of which this is by no means the first. Human Rights Watch has documented about ten cases and we will publish a paper on it in the coming days. They have not been resolved. We hope that this time the authorities find the people behind this barbaric crime,” Machado said.

Machado said that “it is sad that what started as an effort to build bridges and peace in Mozambique has degenerated into political persecution and assassination, a barbarous way to end people’s lives”.

“I think that the important role that Jeremias Pondeca had in the history of democracy in Mozambique goes without saying. He was for many years one of the oldest opposition MPs and in recent times played a crucial role in efforts to find an effective peace in Mozambique,” Machado said.

Renamo spokesman Antonio Muchanga told Lusa that police had found Machado’s body on Saturday around 7:00 a.m. but that it was only identified by his family on Sunday. Pondeca had several bullet wounds.

Muchanga said Pondeca left home in the early hours of Saturday for his usual morning exercises on the beach at Costa do Sol but never returned home.

The United States, the European Union the French and the Portuguese governments have condemned Pondeca’s murder.

Source: Lusa