Maputo — The Mozambican police have slapped another indefinite ban on demonstrations by citizens who were once migrant workers in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and who are known colloquially as "majermanes".

A statement from the Maputo City police command, read out on Mozambican Television's evening news on Tuesday, informed the majermanes that the march planned for this Friday has been banned, as have all future ones until notice to the contrary.

The former migrants have also been banned from gathering in the public garden in the suburb of Alto-Mae, which is the habitual starting point for their demonstrations.

The statement simply cites unspecified "security concerns" as the justification for these measures.

This ban is a repetition of a letter of 26 May sent by the police to the body that claims to represent the majermanes, the Forum of Former Workers from the ex-GDR.

The police may have had genuine security worries in June, because of two major events that took place in Maputo during the month - the African Economic Summit, organised by the World Economic Forum, and the heads of state summit of the ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) group. But no such events are planned for July.

The police ban is flagrantly illegal. It violates Mozambican legislation on the freedom of assembly and the right to demonstrate.

The law gives citizens the right to demonstrate peacefully, and they need no authorisation from the government, the police, or anyone else to exercise that right. What they must do, however, is inform the police and the local authorities, at least four days in advance, of any planned demonstration, its route, time and purpose.

The law makes clear that this is a notification, not a request for authorisation.

The majermanes are demanding money, supposedly sent from Germany to Maputo in the 1980s, which they claim the Mozambican government still owes them. The government says there is no such debt, and documentation from the German embassy proves that the government is correct.

This, however, has no bearing on the legality of the demonstrations. People are allowed to demonstrate on the streets of Maputo regardless of whether the causes they espouse are to the liking of the authorities or not.

Thus in October 2001 several thousand moslems marched in Maputo, chanting "Long live Bin Laden, long live the Taliban !", and carrying posters of the mass murderer Osama bin Laden. Nobody tried to stop them.

It is true that some of the majermane protests have degenerated into violence. But that does not give the police the right to impose a blanket ban on all future demonstrations.