14 May 2008
Maputo — Units of the Mozambican police and of the customs service opened fire on each other on Tuesday, in Homoine, a town in the southern province of Inhambane, reports Wednesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias".
The authorities blamed the incident on lack of coordination between the two forces. The customs officers decided to carry out an operation in Homoine to detect and seize alleged stolen vehicles, but did not inform the police of their intentions.
The suspected thieves were not prepared to obey the orders given by the customs officers to stop their vehicles and allow them to be searched. Some of the drivers and passengers reacted violently against the customs brigade. The customs officers were forced to shoot into the air and call on police assistance.
But when the police arrived, they started shooting at the customs officers.
Within a few minutes, residents of Homoine found themselves in the cross fire of an incident they could not understand, and began to panic.
The local authorities also did not understand what was going on, and only after some time had elapsed was the situation brought under control. The Inhambane Provincial Customs Director, Jaime Nicholson, promised to give a full account of this situation later, saying that his institution had yet to find a full explanation.
For his part, the provincial police commander, Jose Machava, said that he was caught unawares by this incident, because in the past when the Customs Service carried out similar operations, they warned the police and cooperated with them, but this time they did not.
"I lament the Homoine incident, which disturbed public order and tranquility", said Machava. "It became clear that the shoot out resulted from a lack of communication about the operation on the part of the Customs Services". He said that not even the local administrator had been informed.
There have been reports of suspected stolen vehicles circulating in that area of Inhambane with forged papers, but the supposed rightful owners have never reclaimed their vehicles. But some of the vehicles may have been stolen in South Africa, and their owners may not even know that they are in Inhambane police yards.
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