Mozambique: "No Alternative" to Lynchings

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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)

6 March 2008
Posted to the web 6 March 2008

Maputo

The Mozambican people "have no alternative but to take the law into their own hands because of the failure of the authorities to act", claimed Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo, in an interview published on Thursday in the pro-Renamo weekly "Zambeze".

Dhlakama did not actually come out in support of lynch mobs, but he did claim that the recent lynching of alleged criminals in several Mozambican cities should be blamed on the failures of the police and justice system.

"There are groups who kill and steal such as that group that went around attacking people with machetes in Chimoio, and breaking into their houses", he said. "Several times the people caught them and took them to the police. But some days later they were freed and, as if this were not enough, they would threaten the people".

In Chimoio, seven people were reported lynched in late February. A crowd attacked a police station in an unsuccessful attempt to seize and murder 12 other alleged thieves held in the police cells. This led to full scale rioting in the city.

"The people don't trust the authorities. This is the result of the lack of a functioning justice system", claimed Dhlakama. "The people are not ignorant, They never seize the innocent. The people catch thieves and murderers red handed. They know who they are".

Apart from his touching belief that lynch mobs never make mistakes, Dhlakama also revealed his sheer ignorance of Mozambican law. For it is perfectly possible for magistrates to order the conditional release of people accused of theft, so that they can await their trial at home, rather than overcrowding the prisons.

And as Attorney-General Augusto Paulino pointed out on Monday, in cases of petty theft, the criminal should be given a summary trial which could happen on the same day of his arrest. He could be fined, or given a suspended sentence. Yet when this happens cries go up that justice has not been done.

But Dhlakama evaded the real problems and dilemmas of the Mozambican justice system, and preferred to insult all the leading figures in the system. Justice Minister Esperanca Machavela, Supreme Court President Mario Mangaze, and the Attorney-General were all "doing nothing".

"Justice doesn't function. It's a puppet show", he alleged. "There's no rule of law in Mozambique. How can the rule of law exist when the Frelimo Party obliges state functionaries to have party cards?" This is a favourite Renamo accusation, and one for which no evidence has ever been provided.

Dhlakama also claimed that it was impossible for foreigners to invest in Mozambique "without being associated with a Frelimo member. This undermines investment. It's why everything fails. There's so much bureaucracy and corruption".

The interviewer did not bother to ask Dhlakama for any examples that might back up these claims.

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