1 February 2008
Maputo — The chairperson of the Islamic Council of Mozambique (CISLAMO), Sheik Aminuddin Mahomad, has denied any knowledge of a plan to send dozens of children from the north of the country to study at the Massjd Hamza madrassa (Koranic school) in the southern city of Matola which he heads.
A truck carrying 39 children was intercepted by the police in the central province of Sofala on Monday. The truck was seized after a 40th child, who had escaped, contacted the authorities in Caia, on the south bank of the Zambezi.
"The child came to the police and said there was a truck going towards Maputo with lots of children, and so we intercepted it", said a police spokesperson, cited in Friday's is sue of the weekly paper "Savana"..
The truck almost got away. According to its driver, Felisberto Penga, it was first intercepted by the traffic police just south of Caia. But Penga simply paid the traffic cop a bribe of 500 meticais (about 20 US dollars), and the truck continued on its way. It was eventually seized, and the adults in the truck arrested, near the Inchope cross roads in Manica province.
Penga claimed he did not know where the children were from, and that he had merely agreed to give them, and the adults accompanying them, a lift in his truck as far as Inchope. After that they would make their own way to Beira.
The police suspected that this was a case of child trafficking, but soon found that the children were accompanied by leaders of the Hamza madrassa in the northern city of Nampula. These men said they were taking the children, aged between seven and 16, to continue "religious studies" in madrassas in Matola, Maputo and in the western city of Tete (thus contradicting Penga's claim that the destination was Beira). They named Sheik Aminuddin as the man who would receive the children being taken to the south.
Sheik Aminuddin's statements to "Savana" were ambivalent. On the one hand he said he knew nothing about the children. He claimed he was out of the country when the truck was seized, and only found out about the incident when the deputy chairperson of CISLAMO, Abdul Carimo, phoned him on Wednesday and told him that a truck containing children apparently going to his madrassa had been intercepted.
But he added that he saw nothing wrong in sending children to a madrassa, and admitted that his madrassa already has about 100 children studying "Islamic theology".
Aminuddin claimed there might be a deliberate media attempt to overdramatise the case. "This could be another of those cases where someone has found an opportunity to demonise the Islamic religion", he said. "We know that the objective is later to draw a relation between our schools and terrorist training camps".
But the Nampula madrassa officials told police that the recruitment of the children was ordered by Aminuddin, in accordance with the places available in the madrassas in Matola and Tete. After graduating from their studies, the children would become mosque administrators and would teach the Koran to others.
The private television station STV visited Aminuddin's madrassa in Matola, where it found dozens of children from all over the country studying the Koran. Some of the children said their parents had sent them to the madrassa, but others said they were there without the knowledge and consent of their parents.
Madrassa officials claimed that, in addition to memorizing the Koran (in Arabic), the children were also taught the Mozambican school curriculum.
But when STV visited a second Matola madrassa, also full of children, the officials tried to stop them from filming. The journalists were, however, able to talk to the children, and found that in this madrassa the only "education" they received was memorizing the Koran.
STV then challenged the Maputo provincial director of education, who said he had no idea such things were happening in the name of education in Matola. He stressed that, in a lay state such as Mozambique, religious education is a complement to the national education syllabus, and can never replace it.
Parents, he added, have the obligation to send their children to a recognized school. In most cases, this will be a state school, but those who can afford it may send their children to recognised private schools. The madrassas do not fall into that category.
The children on the truck who spoke to reporters said their parents had sent them, and that they had even paid for the journey. They claim they had paid for meals too - yet on the long journey from Nampula they were given nothing but bread and fruit juice.
The police remain suspicious, and say they are continuing to investigate the true motives for transporting the children such long distances.
The United Nations office in Maputo took the opportunity to demand a strengthening of the Mozambican law against trafficking in children. "This incident draws our attention to the serious problem of trafficking in children, and the urgent need to adopt legal instruments that strengthen the protection of children against abuse and exploitation", said the UN Resident Coordinator, Ndolamb Ngokwey, in a press release received by AIM.
Bills on child protection and on trafficking in people were approved by the Mozambican government last years, but have yet to be debated and passed by the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. Leila Pakkala, Maputo representative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), urged the Assembly to ensure that these bills are on the agenda for its next sitting, which begins on 1 March.
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