Mozambique: Renamo members flee for fear of persecution

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Mozambique: Renamo members flee for fear of persecution

9:49 CAT | 19 Dec 2016

DW (File photo)

At least seven Renamo members of the Provincial Assembly of Zambézia have left their jobs and are in hiding.

“At the moment, we have seven colleagues who have received death threats,” president of the Provincial Assembly of Zambézia Betinho Jaime says. All are members of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo). “They are alive and well, but in hiding,” he adds, having spoken to their relatives.

Jaime says the problem is not restricted to the seven he mentions. “Provincial assemblies run by Renamo have serious persecution problems. These provinces are going through bad times, and colleagues in those provinces are disappearing in broad daylight. If they are not kidnapped and never come back they are shot and killed by gunshots in their own homes. To date, there has been no light shed on the perpetrators [of these persecutions],” he says.

default — Betinho Jaime, president of the Provincial Assembly of Zambézia

Betinho Jaime himself claims to have been targeted in October. Unknown men invaded his official residence during the night, where he was sleeping with his wife and children.

According to the Renamo politician, the policemen who were to protect them were not at their posts. “I have not been interviewed by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and I have not insisted either. I was not satisfied with the statements made by former police spokesman Jacinto Felix [in response to my claim that the absence of the police was], in a sense encouraging my enemies to take my life,”

“He said that I live in safety, but his concern should be: if he is protected, how did his enemies get in? Where was the protection?” he adds.

Renamo calls for transfers between provinces

“For me it’s like a duel. We went to the electoral race, which is a game, and the game says that whoever scores the most, has goals and can score, there can be no other [player[ to ignore the goals and chase the players from the other side,” Jaime says in criticism of the ruling party, Frelimo (Liberation Front of Mozambique).

Renamo says it has lost count of the number of members who have been kidnapped or killed in recent months. Jaime therefore requests the transfer of Renamo members to other provinces or constituencies, arguing that, at the moment, the members of Provincial Assemblies should be from other zones, for security reasons.

Miguel Catenao, police spokesman in Zambézia, did not offer any comment, but promised detailed information subsequent to Criminal Investigation Police investigations.

In Maputo, the government and Renamo continue to reach agreement and end the political-military conflict. The largest opposition party in the country continues to demand to govern in the six provinces where it claims victory in the general elections of 2014, with the government so far declining to concede the point.

Source: Deutsche Welle