Mozambique: Protesting ex-defence officers flee police charge in Maputo

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Mozambique: Protesting ex-defence officers flee police charge in Maputo

11:34 CAT | 05 Jun 2024

Screen grab: Adriano Nuvunga / Facebook

Police intervention led to the ‘stampede’ of hundreds of former Defence and Security Forces officers on Tuesday who had been camped out in protest outside the United Nations in Maputo, the group’s leader said.

‘I can’t confirm whether any arrests have been made. There were around 200 people who had to flee in a stampede. The police used force. Seven vans full of all kinds of well-armed police arrived,’ Adolfo Samuel, the protest’s spokesman and a former senior state security officer, told Lusa.

‘Now we’re disorganised, we’ve all had to flee. We still don’t know what we’re going to do,’ he added, adding that the police intervention took place at around 8 p.m. local time (one hour less in Lisbon).

At issue is a protest that began on 28 May, with hundreds of former officers from Mozambique’s Defence and Security Forces camping outside the United Nations to demand supposed compensation resulting from the General Peace Agreement, which ended the country’s civil war.

‘We are here representing the United Nations because our disengagement was under the General Peace Agreement (1992), signed in Rome between the government and Renamo [the main opposition force], under the aegis of the United Nations. We were disengaged with the promise of being compensated, but since then, neither water has come nor gone,’ Adolfo Samuel told Lusa on 28 May.

According to Adolfo Samuel, at least 1,856 former officers of the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces, from different branches, mainly from the Mozambican secret service [former SNASP], are in the same situation.

‘We’ve contacted state institutions several times, including the presidency, but they’ve all ignored us. So, since the United Nations has been aware of our disengagement and the current government is soon to end its mandate, we thought it appropriate to come and collect the debt that the government and the United Nations owe us,’ added the group’s leader.

Lusa contacted the United Nations, which preferred not to comment on the case and referred any position to the Mozambican executive.

‘Since the mandate of President [Armando] Guebuza until today, we have been promised, but we have no answers. What we are demanding here is compensation. Even the pensions we receive are being reduced, and we don’t know why,’ Paulo Momade, a former member of the Defence and Security Forces and one of the protesters, told Lusa last week.

Among the complainants are also widows of former officers of the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces.

‘I’m here representing my husband, who was a fighter. He died fighting for this money, but he didn’t get it. I’m getting old here too, already tired, but I can’t get this problem solved,’ said Filomena Micas, the wife of a former combatant, who also took part in the protest that began last week.

The General Peace Agreement ended the 16-year war, which pitted the government army, of which the plaintiffs were part, against the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) guerrilla group. Renamo has already disarmed and been reintegrating its guerrillas involved in the war.

The conflict, which left thousands dead, ended with the signing of an agreement on 4 October 1992 in Rome between then President Joaquim Chissano and Renamo’s historic leader Afonso Dhlakama, who died in May 2018.

The General Peace Agreement was violated in 2013 by armed clashes between the two parties over disputes related to the general elections.

In 2014, the two parties signed another agreement to cease military hostilities, which was also violated again until the third understanding in August 2019, the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement, which resulted in the disarmament of the armed arm of the main opposition party in Mozambique.

Source: Lusa