Mozambique: NGO advocates external involvement in murder of election observer case

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Mozambique: NGO advocates external involvement in murder of election observer case

1:14 CAT | 28 Jan 2020

Picture: Human Rights Watch

The Mozambican non-governmental organisation Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) yesterday advocated invoking international human rights mechanisms to hold the Mozambican state accountable for the death of an election observer in October.

The CDD’s position is expressed in an analysis of a report that states that two of the five police agents accused by the Gaza Provincial Attorney’s Office of involvement in the death of Anastácio Matavel have reportedly been promoted by the commander-general of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (PRM), Bernardino Rafael.

“Instead of being held accountable, the agents involved were promoted within of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, three months after the murder [of Anastácio Matavel] took place,” the CDD text reads.

The crime, it continues, was planned from above, at the level of the state, and is therefore a state crime.

“Four months after the crime, the Mozambican justice system is not doing enough to try and convict the murderers, or compensate the victim’s family,” the analysis claims.

The murder of Anastácio Matavel must therefore be brought to international mechanisms for the defence of human rights so that the Mozambican state is held accountable for the actions of its agents, the analysis concludes.

In its latest (last Friday) edition, the Mozambican weekly Savana writes that the PRM commander-general in December promoted two of the five agents accused by the Public Ministry of involvement in Matavel’s murder.

Orders dated December 27 and apparently signed by Bernardino Rafael, show that Edson Silica was promoted to deputy police inspector and Agapito Matavele to sergeant.

Lusa News Agency has tried, without success, to interview the PRM general command on the matter.

Edson Silica and Agapito Matavele were formally indicted by the Provincial Attorney of Gaza of participating in the murder of Anastácio Matavel, a representative of Sala da Paz, a coalition of NGOs linked to electoral observation in Mozambique.

Matavel was shot in the street in broad daylight a week before the October 15th general elections.

In November, the Gaza Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, southern Mozambique, charged eight defendants with the crime, including five police agents.

Anastácio Matavel’s murder provoked condemnation in Mozambique and abroad, him being a civil society activist involved in electoral observation who died during the election campaign in a province known for its political intolerance of opponents of the ruling Front of Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo).

Source: Lusa