MDM demands inquiry into police clampdown on May Day – Maputo

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MDM demands inquiry into police clampdown on May Day – Maputo

6:42 CAT | 04 May 2017

Magazine Independente (File photo) / Lutero Simango

The Mozambican Democratic Movement (MDM), the country’s third-largest political party, has asked the Interior Ministry to open an inquiry into the prevention by the police of its deputies marching on May Day in Maputo.

In the application, which Lusa saw yesterday, the MDM parliamentary bench requires “an internal investigation for the proper clarification of this incident”.

The party accuses the police of having “threatened and humiliated” its deputies, barring them from marching in International Labour Day festivities in Maputo.

The MDM reports that the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) surrounded the party’s entourage, including its 17 Assembly of the Republic deputies, with riot gear, AK-47 machine guns and patrol cars, preventing them marching.

“As if we were a group of criminals, we were surrounded by an armed and repressive group without any justification,” the document, signed by the head of the MDM bench, Lutero Simango, says.

The UIR maintained the blockade of the MDM caravan, despite explanations from a representative of the Mozambican Workers’ Organization that the party had received an invitation to parade on May 1st.

Police, the statement said, only allowed the MDM party to march on condition that it did so behind the parade of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) party.

The MDM rejects a police allegation that the party intended to march outside the time scheduled for the parade and that it displayed offensive banners.

“The MDM, at the invitation of OTM – Central Sindical, planned to be part of this important national event, to associate itself with the cause of the workers and to manifest itself according to the right conferred on all the political organisations in this occasion,” Lutero’s statement reads.

Source: Lusa