Mozambique: Assembly passes final reading of local forces bill

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Mozambique: Assembly passes final reading of local forces bill

11:50 CAT | 19 Dec 2022

Photo: A Verdade

The Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday night, passed the second and final reading of a government bill legalizing the “local forces” fighting alongside the army against islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado.

Defence Minister Cristovao Chume told the deputies that the “local forces” were a way for citizens to move to “active and passive resistance” against aggressors occupying parts of the country. These forces, he added, would be dependent on the General Staff of the Mozambican Armed Forces (FADM).

The two opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), claimed that the local forces are “unconstitutional” and that they would be used to harass opponents of the ruling Frelimo Party.

MDM deputy Fernando Bismarque even claimed that Chume had threatened opposition deputies. In fact, nothing in Chume’s words could reasonably be construed as a threat, even though at one point he did suggest that Bismarque is still young enough to serve in the armed forces.

He invited the deputies to visit Cabo Delgado and see for themselves the activities of the local forces.

“We have received in Cabo Delgado parliamentarians from South Africa, from Tanzania and from other countries”, said Chume. “But we haven’t yet received our own deputies.”

“If you visit, you will have the opportunity to speak with members of the Local Force, who are sacrificing themselves to provide support to the noble cause of defending our sovereignty, without looking at party political colours”, said the Minister.

The terrorists, he pointed out, murder, mutilate and rape without asking which political party their victims support.

He was inviting the deputies to Cabo Delgado, Chume added, “so that we can unite as a State, in the name of those who are putting their lives at risk in defence of sovereignty”.

Chume stressed that, although the Local Forces consists of volunteers, not everyone who volunteered would be accepted. He said they pass through a kind of community filter which checks the “moral and civic aspects” of the volunteers.

“We need to go there (to Cabo Delgado) so that we can understand this”, he added.

He addressed one Renamo deputy in particular – Arlindo Maquival, who is a former Renamo general, now on the reserve list. “I would like to invite you to go with me to Cabo Delgado to see how the soldiers you left there, and who are now in the FADM, are fighting against the terrorists”, he said.

“I didn’t know you don’t support your comrades-in-arms in the fight against terrorism”, Chume told Maquival. “I hope that politics does not blind us to the oath we took as soldiers to defend our sovereignty”.

These words made no impact on the Renamo parliamentary group. Indeed, Renamo spokesperson Arnaldo Chalaua even claimed that legalizing the Local Forces could lead the Mozambican government to be accused of war crimes.

He protested that events in Cabo Delgado were “an unofficial war”, because the government has not declared a state of war or state of siege.

The bill was passed by 153 votes (all from Frelimo) against 42 from Renamo and the MDM.

Source: AIM