Watch: Graça Machel says all Mbuzini martyrs must be remembered, calls for immediate peace in Mozambique

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Watch: Graça Machel says all Mbuzini martyrs must be remembered, calls for immediate peace in Mozambique

1:52 CAT | 20 Oct 2016

TVM / Graça Machel speaking at yesterday's ceremonies in Maputo

Graça Machel, widow of Samora Machel, has asked the national press to make mention of other figures who perished in the fatal air crash that killed former Mozambican president Samora Machel.

“I would like to make a suggestion for the benefit of younger generations who were not alive at the time of the tragedy, and ask the media to take a little time to identify all of the Mbuzini martyrs, giving their faces, theinames and functions, and valuing them more than by just referring to them as ‘the other families’,” Graça said.

“Mozambique recognised the equality of those who fell in Mbuzini so much that each of the pillars symbolising the fallen victims in the monument erected is exactly the same size. Our pain is the same, and as we celebrate the lives of those who died in Mbuzini and for the benefit of the younger generation, I respectfully suggest that the media mention the names and functions of the other victims of the Mbuzini tragedy,” the widow of Samora Machel said.

Graça Machel said that Samora was alive within each Mozambican and his immortalisation could not be confined merely to the celebration of the anniversary of his disappearance.

“Samora lives and lives on in each of us. This cannot be only a celebration; it must be a time of commitment to making Samora live on in our work of combating tribalism and other practices contrary to the principles defended by the first President of the country,” she said.

Machel concluded by asking for the cessation of military hostilities in the country, saying that dialogue was the solution to political disputes.

“Put away the weapons once and for all, end the conflict in this country. We live with this pain and we don’t want anyone living any longer day by day with what we feel. Our children grew up without knowing their father, our grandchildren will not know what the lap of their grandparents was like and it has to stop. The Mozambican family must learn to embrace. Dialogue must prevail so that something other than the sound of weapons brings us together.”

Image result for names of victims mbuzini monument — Samora Machel Monument – Heritage Portal SA

The Mubuzini Victims

AIM released a translation of the Political Bureau ‘Communique on Victims’ on October 20, 1986, which we partially transcribed. Please read below:

Communique on Victims

The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Frelimo party, the Standing Commission of the People’s Assembly, and the Council of Ministers of the People’s Republic of Mozambique inform, with deep sorrow, that in the tragic event in which the President of the Frelimo Party and President of the People’s Republic of Mozambique, Marshal Samora Moisés Machel, was a victim, the following members of the Presidential delegation also lost their lives :

Luís Maria de Alcantara Santos – Minister of Transport and Communications

José Carlos Lobo – Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs

Aquino de Bragança – Director for the Centre for African Studies

Fernando Honwana – Personal Assistant to His Excellency the President of the Republic

Alberto Cangela de Mendonça – National Chief of Protocol

Muradali Mamadussen – Private Secretary to His Excellency the President of the Republic

João Tomas Navesse – Assistant Director in the Directorate for Juridical and Consular Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Ivete Amos – Secretary to His Excellency the President of the Republic

Osvaldo de Sousa – Interpreter for English of His Excellency the President of the Republic

Bernardino Chiche – Interpreter for French of His Excellency the President of the Republic

Gulamo Khan – Press Attache in the Presidency of the Republic

Daniel Maquinasse – Official Photographer of His Excellency the President of the Republic

Parente Manjate – Employee of the Presidency

Naçir Charamandane – Employee of the Presidency

Adão Gore Nhoca – Employee of the Presidency

Eduardo Viegas – Employee of the Presidency

Albino Falteira – Employee of the Presidency

Alberto Chaúque – Employee of the Presidency

José Quivanhane – Employee of the Presidency

Azarias Inguane – Photographer with Notícias newspaper

Fernando Nhaquila – Flight Engineer

Orlanda Garrine – Stewardess

Esmeralda Luisa – Stewardess

Sofia Arone – Stewardess

Ilda Carão – Stewardess

At the same time, the following internationalist workers perished :

Henriques Bettencourt – Personal Physician to His Excellency President of the Republic

Ulisses La Rosa Mesa – Personal Physician to His Excellency President of the Republic

Yuri Novodran – Captain of the aircraft

Igor Kartamychev – Co-pilot

Oleg Koudrianov – Flight Engineer

Anatoli Choupilov – Flight Engineer

Travelling with the Presidential delegation were Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of the Republic of Zambia and of the Republic of Zaire, Cox C. Sikumba and TokwaÌu Batale Okulakama respectively, both accredited in the People’s Republic of Mozambique, and who also perished in the disaster.

The following members of the Presidential delegation, some of whom are in serious condition, survived the tragic event : Eusebio Guido Martinho, Carlos Jambo, Fernando Manuel João, Almeida Pedro, Manuel Jairosse, Daniel Cuna, Jossefa Machango, Vasco Langa, João Rendição, Vladimir Novoselov.
(…)