Maputo — Former Portuguese President Mario Soares has called for a commission of inquiry to investigate the murder Wednesday of Carlos Cardoso, editor of the independent Maputo daily Metical.

He was speaking in Lisbon to a correspondent of Mediacoop, the Mozambican journalists' co-operative to which Cardoso once belonged, at a ceremony where the Council of Europe awarded him its North-South Prize.

"A commission of inquiry should be set up to establish the circumstances in which he was killed," Soares declared. "What happened is intolerable - a country cannot kill its journalists who should be the voice of independence."

Manuel Alegre, a Portuguese poet and parliamentarian of the ruling Socialist Party, agreed that a commission should be created.

He declared that he was "shocked and indignant at the liquidation of a great journalist."

He believed that the murder of Cardoso was intended "to intimidate and gag Mozambican journalists."

Meanwhile, messages of grief and rage continue to pour into the offices of Metical.

One came from Chude Mondlane, daughter of Eduardo Mondlane, the founder and first president of FRELIMO, who was murdered in his Dar es Salaam office in 1969.

She expressed shock at the murder - but "it did not come as a great surprise. I should weep at the mere fact that I no longer believe that those in power today can rid the country of those bent on greed and destruction."

Mozambicans resident in Britain, and the Britain-Mozambique Society, hoped that "the example of Carlos Cardoso, both as a journalist and as a person who devoted his life to fighting for truth and justice, will live on in the hearts and minds of the present and future generations of Mozambicans."

"Where one falls, let ten rise to take his place!," exclaimed this message which, like so many others, also urged the Mozambican authorities to take all necessary measures to bring the assassins to justice.