Mozambique. NGO files complaint over alleged ‘massacre’ of prisoners – Watch

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Mozambique. NGO files complaint over alleged ‘massacre’ of prisoners – Watch

3:51 CAT | 07 Jan 2025

Screen grab: CDD Moçambique

The Centre for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) in Maputo, a Mozambican non-governmental organization, filed a complaint yesterday with the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) against the Ministries of the Interior and Justice for the “massacre” of 33 prisoners.

“We were at the central prison and at the BO [maximum security prison] this morning to investigate the deaths that occurred on December 25 during an attempted escape by inmates, and the information we gathered is that 33 persons were killed by police bullets – 30 from the central prison and three from the BO,” said the director of the CDD, Adriano Nuvunga, shortly after the complaint was filed with the PGR.

At issue is the death, according to Mozambican authorities, of at least 33 people during the escape of 1,534 inmates from two penitentiaries in Maputo province.

Adriano Nuvunga accused the Mozambican state of using police force, in particular the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR), rendering these deaths properly liable to be called “a massacre”.

“We analysed the entire situation, all the conditions of the escape, and what is clear is that the Mozambican state, through its police officers, indiscriminately shot and killed those people. Given that 33 people were murdered, that already falls into the category of massacre,” he explained.

The director of the CDD rejected any idea of self-defence [behind the killings] and also said the state should have adopted measures to prevent escape attempts, “without resulting in massacres against Mozambicans”.

“Although we are at the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the truth is that massacres of this nature deserve to be dealt with at an international level, because they are crimes against humanity, but that means bringing the case to the Mozambican justice system. That is what we are doing,” Nuvunga said.

Nuvunga said investigations with families were underway to identify the remaining victims and into similar massacres in Nampula and Zambézia, with the prospect of being completed on Wednesday. The results will be submitted to the PGR as part of the “preparation of the case for international accountability.”

“As reported, and as circulating videos have shown, some of those who were recovered and even some who returned to prison voluntarily were brutally murdered and tortured to death – some in the prison, others in the UIR barracks and in some police stations,” he concluded.

The National Penitentiary Service of Mozambique (SERNAP) announced on January 2 that, out of a total of 1,534 inmates who escaped on December 25 during a prison riot in Maputo, at least 322 had been recaptured.

In a live broadcast on the social network Facebook, Venâncio Mondlane, the presidential candidate who is leading the challenge to the election results from abroad, rejected the theory that the protesters who are contesting the results of the general elections of October 9 were involved, as put forward by the police, accusing the authorities of having deliberately let the inmates escape, with the aim of manipulating the masses and diverting society’s attention.

“It was all deliberate. These are mass manipulation techniques in the style of the Soviet secret services (…) so that people will stop talking about electoral fraud. They want to divert our attention,” declared Mondlane, going on to accuse the authorities of having “sacrificed” some of the inmates.

Mozambique has been experiencing a post-electoral crisis since October, with protests and strikes that have culminated in violent clashes between police and demonstrators protesting the results of the October 9 elections. Almost 300 protestors have died and close to 600 people have been injured by police gunfire, according to civil society organizations following the events.

You may read, download CDD Mozambique’s communiques on this issue. Below:

Grave human rights violations reported: Massacre at Maputo Central Prison – CDD

CDD at Maputo Central Prison to investigate the deaths of 33 inmates during mass escape

AT THE CENTRAL PRISON AND B.O. Two Weeks Later: Still No Names of the Victims of the Massacre Perpetrated by Security Forces

Source: Lusa