22 May 2008
Maputo — Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party on Thursday urged Mozambicans to continue to live peacefully alongside citizens of other countries, and not to seek revenge for the murderous attacks against Mozambicans and other foreign migrants that have occurred in South Africa.
Speaking to AIM, the Frelimo Central Committee Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda, Edson Macuacua, said that Frelimo condemns the xenophobic violence that is stalking South African townships. He lamented that, at a time when the borders are coming down in the Southern African region, and movement between the members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has never been easier, there should still be groups of people whose vision is so narrow that they think they can gain more by turning their countries into islands hermetically sealed against foreigners.
Those who think like that, Macuacua added, should look at how members of the European Union are profiting from the free movement of people and goods across national boundaries.
He stressed that "this wave of xenophobia cannot be blamed on the entire people of South Africa. It is the diabolical work of some groups who don't want the peoples of the region finally to build together an economically strong and prosperous southern Africa".
He urged Mozambicans to keep calm, and to act in a spirit of peace, and of solidarity with their destitute fellow countrymen who are now fleeing from South Africa. They should give all the support necessary so that the Mozambican victims of violence can rebuild their lives.
In particular, he urged members and supporters of Frelimo to dissuade anyone who might be thinking of revenge attacks against South African citizens. Vengeance and violence would solve no problems, Macuacua stressed. Any revenge attacks would hit innocent South Africans rather than those who organised acts of murder and looting.
Macuacua stressed that Frelimo and South Africa's ruling ANC have long worked closely together, and they would do so now "to identify the best solutions to this crisis of security in South Africa".
"This xenophobia should be seen as the work of the enemies of the peoples and the governments of both countries", he said. "Just as in the past we fought against our enemies together, now we must do the same until harmony is restored".
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