Mozambique Elections: Police use tear gas to disperse protestors in Maputo
Mozambique Elections: Diaspora wants EU to look at country ‘like it looked at Venezuela’
7:45 CAT | 10 Dec 2024
Photo: @indignadosmoz/X
A group of Mozambican citizens demonstrated on Monday in front of the European Commission and the European Parliament in Brussels, demanding that the European Union (EU) look at Mozambique “like it looked at Venezuela or Georgia”.
They were few in number, not even two dozen, but their voices could be heard in the distance at the Schuman roundabout, in front of the European Commission building. It was the meeting point for a group of Mozambican citizens, not only from Belgium, but also from the Netherlands and Italy, who, more than 8,000 kilometres away from Maputo, want to be part of the challenge to the results of the 9 October elections.
Two months after the elections, they gathered to ask the EU to “look at Mozambique like it looked at Venezuela or Georgia,” Aurora Foguete, 34, told Lusa.
The group doesn’t belong to a movement or collective, they are just ‘concerned citizens’ who agreed via social media to organise a demonstration, explained the self-styled spokesperson.
Armed with thick coats, caps and gloves – the temperature in Brussels is already around 3°C – the demonstrators waved Mozambique flags or carried them on their backs like a cape, and held placards that read “enough of corruption, enough of FRELIMO [Mozambique Liberation Front, in power for 50 years], Venâncio in power”; “the people are not vandals. Vandals are those who humiliate and kill!’; “To ignore fraud is to kill democracy!” and “Fraud is theft! We have the right to choice and justice”.
Having lived in Brussels for three years, the spokesperson for this citizens’ group warned of “human rights violations, repression of demonstrations, cutting off access to communications” by a “usurping government” that is “stealing the resources” of the country.
Asked what changed in 2024 that led to the demonstrations against the way the electoral process was conducted, which were violently repressed by the police and the army, causing more than 100 deaths, Aurora Foguete said that what changed in this election “was people’s awareness”.
The people are on the streets, but they lack international support: “We Mozambicans are tired of being told what to do. That’s why we’ve decided to take to the streets to tell the international community that it’s colluding with the regime.”
“The elections were not fair. We Mozambicans in the diaspora and in Mozambique are asking [EU countries] not to recognise the government. If the people don’t recognise it, it doesn’t make any sense. We know that there are economic interests with companies, but those same companies will be needed to rebuild our country later,” she urged.
A return to Maputo was planned for December, to celebrate Christmas and her pregnancy with her family, but the demonstrations and street violence have postponed the trip and even led Aurora to consider how to get her family out of the country if the situation ‘turns into a civil war’.
“They look to Ukraine because they have resources, we do too! The pain of black people also matters, if it were a neighbouring country, as happened in Georgia, with the elections… It’s the same case, the difference is on the continent,” she lamented.
That’s why, in unison, they reinforced the call for the countries of the European Union “not to recognise the government” and demanded “that the EU, in the future, when it wants to make a project, take into account the change that the people want”.
And Portugal, the protester admitted, is not blameless, as a colonising country with historical ties to Mozambique, which has had a strong presence in Mozambique’s business fabric for many years, such as Galp.
“Portugal is our biggest ally in the European Union, there are political parties that support us and even think we should be compared to Venezuela, but others congratulate the government. Enough!” she said, visibly dismayed.
Aurora Foguete also criticised what she said was the European Union’s decision to continually ‘pour’ money into the country without really caring about the political and social situation. This lack of concern, as she termed it, also fuels anti-immigration speeches.
“I’m in Europe, but I don’t feel it’s a blessing. I’d like to be in Mozambique, but that’s not possible,” she added.
The demonstrators made their way towards the European Parliament in the non-stop rain. The intention is to take the slogans that came from Maputo to all the European institutions with a single message: “This has to change”.
Thank you to everyone who joined us in Brussels for the march. Despite some setbacks, we raised our voices, made noise, and showed the world the strength of our determination.#MozambiqueProtests #MozambiqueElections #Freemozambique pic.twitter.com/wPq55d9GBS
— Indignados na Diaspora (@indignadosmoz) December 9, 2024
Source: Lusa
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