Weapons seized in Dhlakama’s house and Renamo headquarters in Maputo – Easter Sunday

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Weapons seized in Dhlakama’s house and Renamo headquarters in Maputo – Easter Sunday

12:04 CAT | 28 Mar 2016

Folha de Maputo

Police seized 47 firearms in raids on the Maputo residence of Afonso Dhlakama and Renamo headquarters on Easter Sunday morning. Dhlakama’s wife and children were at the Julius Nyerere home at the time of the operation, reports Folha de Maputo. Ammunition and military uniforms, some of them belonging to the Armed and Defence Forces of Mozambique (FADM uniforms) were also seized, along with an unspecified amount of precious and semi-precious stones. STV says only 12 AK47s and seven istols of the weapons seized are operational.

According to Notícias, 38 AK47 rifles and seven pistols were found in Dhlakama’s home on the Praça do Destacamento Feminino, in Julius Nyerere Avenue, and the two other AK47s were seized in the Renamo Maputo headquarters, in Ahmed sekou Toure Avenue.

According to PRM Commander Julio Jane, cited by O País, the weapons were used for the commission of crimes, and the police not allowing citizens to live under threat, had collected the material in order to put it in its rightful place.

Jane also said that the police had had no need to use force or confront anybody, but had simply notified the guards in both locations and collected the weapons. The police operations lasted about an hour and, according to O País, were the result of complaints from the public.

Jane said some of the weapons seized were fired a month ago, adding that the police would investigate the case and also look for the weapons matching the ammunition seized. As for the uniforms, Jane said he would investigate whether members of the FADM who were or are part of Renamo lived in the residence where the weapons were seized.

Renamo reacts, says two residences were raided

According to Radio Moçambique, the head of Renamo’s security department Ossufo Momade said the police operation amounted to trespassing.

“We were surprised by the invasion by the Frelimo military of the two residences of the president in Maputo (one in Julius Nyerere and another in Sommerschield 2) and national headquarters of the party. This invasion resulted in the arrest of two guards and the seizure of 20 AK47s. At the official residence of the President and his other house, they took 85,500 meticais. At the national headquarters, they broke into the offices and took a Dell laptop, 2,100 meticais from petty cash (STV ,below, reports an amount 200,000 meticais) and two AK47s used by the guards to secure the premises,” Momade said.

Folha de Maputo says Renamo defended its possession of weapons at both its leader’s house and Renamo headquarters under the terms of the General Peace Agreement.

“It is known to all the Mozambican people and the international community that sponsored the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, that the weapons taken by the Frelimo military are weapons that were in the house of Renamo President Afonso Dhlakama since October 1993 upon his arrival from Marringue, together with the United Nations force ONUMZ, as well as the representative of the Secretary-general of the United Nations at the time Aldo Ayello, as was agreed in Rome that Renamo should have its own security to protect the party, his Excellency the President and its headquarters,” the Renamo statement cited by Folha de Maputo reads.

The same Renamo statement declares that Afonso Dhlakama will react to events in the political arena. “The President of Renamo Afonso Macacho Marceta Dhlakama will react politically, since the war ended on October 4, 1992,” it reads.

PRM spokesman cited in Notícias

Maputo police spokesman Bernardino Rafael told reporters on Sunday that the weapon seizure was in fulfilment of the police’s mission to confiscate weapons used to commit crimes.

“We had information that weapons were entering and leaving those locations and planned their seizure, which confirmed that the information we had was true.”

He said that the existence of weapons in unauthorized hands was the cause of the crime wave in the capital, and especially of armed robberies of homes and shops.

“Preliminary investigations suggest that some of the weapons were used less than a month ago, though for what purpose is not known. We will continue collecting weapons that are in the wrong hands,” Rafael said.

Rafael also said that the four guards at the headquarters and residence of Alfonso Dhhakama had been called to testify to reveal who the weapons belong to.

“We will keep the weapons until they explain who they belong to and what were the owners doing with them.”

The STV report: “Only 12 Ak47s ou of 40 seized are still working…”

Meanwhile, independent TV chanell STV reported that of the weapons seized “few still work,” specifying that of the 40 AK47 seized only 12 are operational and the seven pistols.

On the same morning, Renamo Members of Parliment Ivone Soares and Saimone Macuiana with the party’s head of security Ossufo Momade took journalists to all the three places where police conducted the search and seizure operation starting with the national headquarters of the party in Ahmed Sekou Toure Avenue, where it laims that police broke into all the offices in the Headquarters and ransacked files and documents, taking a computer and 200,000 meticais. The second place to visit was Dhlakama’s Julius Nyerere residence where signs of breaking in are visible as well as scattered clothes but, according to the STV report, the most searched place was the house in Sommerschield 2 where Dhalakama had recently resided, where every compartment in the whole house was searched from top to bottom and left as shown in the images above.

Source: Notícias, O País, Rádio Moçambique, Folha de Maputo, STV