Amnesty International Report 2005 - Mozambique

Covering events from January - December 2004

Armando Guebuza, the candidate of the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frente da Libertação de Moçambique, Frelimo), became President following peaceful elections in December. President Joaquim Chissano, after 18 years in office, did not contest the election. A plan to modernize the police was approved but discipline and control systems remained weak. There were reports of deaths in police custody and excessive use of force and firearms. Investigations into alleged people trafficking continued. Steps were taken to address violence against women.

Background

Frelimo gained 160 seats in the legislative elections, held simultaneously with the presidential poll. The opposition coalition, Mozambique National

Resistance – Electoral Union (Resistência Nacional Moçambicana – União Eleitoral, Renamo-UE), obtained 90 seats, but said that it would not take them up as the elections had been unfair. European Union observers said there had been serious irregularities which may have affected some parliamentary seats.

Efforts to eradicate corruption continued. An Anti-Corruption Law was published in June. Seven people were convicted of involvement in a US$14 million bank fraud, also in June. They included two men convicted in 2003 of the murder in 2000 of journalist Carlos Cardoso, who had been investigating the fraud. Another person convicted of the murder escaped from the maximum security prison in Maputo in May, apparently with the aid of corrupt police, and sought asylum in Canada. Police said they had no new information concerning the murder in 2001 of António Siba-Siba Macuácua who had been investigating another bank fraud.

The National Statistics Institute announced in July that, unless checked, HIV/AIDS could be responsible for one in every three deaths by 2010.

Political violence

There were several instances of politically motivated violence in the run-up to elections, some involving members of the bodyguard of Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, in Sofala province. This prompted calls for the 200 former Renamo soldiers, authorized to continue as an armed unit as a temporary measure under the 1992 peace agreement, to be disbanded.

In April, bodyguard members reportedly arrested and beat at least six people, including Frelimo supporters and one police officer, and burned the Frelimo office in Maringuè. In August, 25 armed bodyguard members invaded the Inhaminga police station and set free Renamo-UE party activists arrested on suspicion of assaulting a Frelimo official. In October, Renamo-UE activists attacked Frelimo offices in Mozambique Island, Nampula province, injuring several people, one of them seriously.

Policing

Crime remained a serious problem, particularly in some densely populated areas of Maputo where there were high rates of unemployment and inadequate police presence.

In May, the government adopted the Strategic Plan of action and modernization of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique (Polícia da República de Moçambique, PRM), for the years 2003 to 2012. The plan had been developed after consultation with government and non-governmental stakeholders. Respect for human rights was reflected in seven of its nine Guiding Principles. However, while the plan acknowledged the problem of abuse of police powers, it made no specific provision for ensuring greater accountability for human rights violations.

Human rights violations attributed to the police included beatings and other ill-treatment, deaths in custody and excessive use of force and firearms. In most cases the authorities apparently failed to take appropriate action to investigate such reports and bring the perpetrators to justice, thus reinforcing a sense of impunity. However, dozens of officers were expelled for disciplinary offences and some also faced criminal charges, including for rape.

There were a few reports of police being prosecuted for human rights violations. For example, an officer was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in Xai-Xai in February for beating a 60-year-old widow and her daughter in December 2003. Another received a seven-year sentence and a fine in June for shooting dead 18-year-old Carlos Faruca in Beira in October 2003.

Abuses by community police

Members of the Community Policing Councils, non-statutory bodies set up by the PRM in many districts to assist police in preventing crime, received no salary and little training. In some areas they were said to have helped to reduce crime but in others to have resorted to beatings, bribery and theft. Although not authorized to do so, some reportedly carried firearms.

• Community police reportedly arrested Cristóvão Francisco Manuel at his home in Beira in January and accused him of theft. They searched the house, handcuffed him and took him to their office where they beat him for several hours. Neighbours, hearing the victim's screams, protested and the beatings stopped. However, the community police had lost the keys to the handcuffs. He was released the following day. There was apparently no police inquiry into his treatment.

Death in custody

Procedures to determine the causes of deaths in custody appeared to be inadequate. Autopsies or medical examinations were not automatically carried out, or were not supported by inquiries by an independent official.

• An autopsy was held at the request of the Mozambique Human Rights League (Liga Moçambicana dos Direitos Humanos, LMDH), a week after the death of Geraldo Celestino João in Chimoio, Manica province, in March. Police had allegedly arrested him at his home without a warrant, handcuffed him, thrown him on the ground, shot him twice in the thighs, hit and kicked him, then taken him to hospital, where he died. The provincial prosecutor investigated the case and, stated in October that the victim had been shot while trying to escape. The LMDH appealed against the finding, but received no reply before the end of 2004.

Excessive use of force and firearms

Reports of excessive use of force and firearms suggested inadequate training in the minimum use of force. There was little indication that police considered alternative tactics before resorting to the use of force and firearms.

• Manjor António Manjor, the son of a local Renamo representative, was injured in Inhaminga in late August. Six paramilitary police went to his home allegedly to search for illegal weapons, but without showing a warrant. They reportedly fired in the air, questioned Manjor António Manjor, and then shot him in the leg, allegedly to stop him running away. The police subsequently took him to hospital. There was apparently no official inquiry into the shooting.

• Paramilitary police beat two demonstrators in July, breaking the arm and collar-bone of one of them. The demonstrators, who had worked in the former German Democratic Republic and were known as "Majermane", were demanding payment of money they believed they were owed. Some had occupied the German Embassy. In May, the police had imposed a ban on demonstrations by the "Majermane", citing security concerns. The LMDH challenged the constitutionality of this ban in August but the Administrative Court had not decided the issue by the end of 2004.

Trafficking

Government and civil society representatives debated the need for a law on people trafficking in response to reports of women and children being taken to South Africa for forced labour or prostitution. Investigations continued into reports of missing persons, violent deaths and mutilations in Nampula province which fuelled fears of trafficking in people and in human organs in 2003 and early 2004. The Attorney General published a report in February which criticized the work of local police and procurators but found no proof of such trafficking. A further report concluded in August was not published, reportedly because it contained details of individuals being prosecuted.

There were reports of extraction of human organs for ritual purposes in Nampula and Niassa provinces. Four people were charged in connection with the mutilation of the penis of a nine-year-old boy in Manica province in 2003. They had not been tried by the end of 2004.

• Marta Paita, aged 39, was killed in Mecuburi district, Nampula province, in March. Organs were extracted from her body. Her two-month old daughter was found dead at her side. She had been attacked while walking back to her home after a visit to a clinic. Six men were arrested in connection with the crime, but the case had not gone to trial by the end of 2004.

Violence against women and children

Offices for Attending to Women and Child Victims of Violence were established in all 10 provinces with police specially trained to deal with violence in the family. The government's Offices for Women and Children and Social Action and a range of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also provided protection and assistance to victims of domestic violence. Cases reported in the media and to NGOs included forced marriage of girl children, sometimes as young as six years old.

AI country visits

AI delegates carried out research in Mozambique and met police and other government officials in April and May. NGOs from north and central Mozambique participated in a human rights workshop coordinated by AI in Nampula in April.

Following the research visit a memorandum containing recommendations on policing and human rights was sent to the government.