Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano Friday paid warm tribute to Carlos Cardoso, editor of the independent newsheet Metical who was murdered in Maputo on Wednesday evening.

Addressing a funeral ceremony at Maputo City Hall, Chissano acknowledged he had many disagreements with Cardoso.

"We were used to arguing with Cardoso," he said. "We argued with him because he raised pertinent problems that demand the attention of all of us. He forced us all to think."

"Today, when he is no longer with us, we can no longer argue," Chissano added. "Who else will raise the questions with the force that he raised them?"

The kind of problems that Cardoso had raised in his journalism must be faced "in order to ensure the advance of our society," the president said.

"We reiterate our determination to continue to struggle for the fundamental rights of our citizens," he said. "We must continue to fight for freedom, equality and justice. We shall continue to fight for the most sacred right of all - the right to life."

"No one has the right to take another person's life, no matter what the reasons, what the disagreements," he declared. "Those who gave themselves the freedom to take away the life of Carlos Cardoso must answer for their actions to justice, to the demands of our people for peace."

He pledged that the Mozambican authorities would work to hunt down the killers "so that they will have no opportunity to hide behind any legal or other artifice. We shall all work towards this."

"We shall not bring the body of Carlos Cardoso back to life," the president said. "But we shall do everything to bring about justice."

"We want a free mass media," he stressed, "and Carlos Cardoso often voiced his belief that in our country we have succeeded in building up a free press."

He assured that the government would do all in its power to defend press freedom, and to ensure that "our media serves what Carlos Cardoso wanted it to serve - the development of the Mozambican people, and the development of the country."

At the funeral ceremony, the four main figures of state were all present - Chissano, Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi, the chairman of the Mozambican parliament, Eduardo Mulembue and the President of the Supreme Court, Mario Mangaze.