Maputo — Mozambique's Minister for Veterans' Affairs, Josefina Mpelo, has categorically denied that the government owes vast sums in compensation to former members of the now disbanded security service, SNASP.

Hundreds of mostly elderly former SNASP employees had camped for a week outside the United Nations offices in Maputo, demanding that the supposed debt be paid, until they were forcibly dispersed by the police last Tuesday.

It is not at all clear why the former SNASP members think they are still owed large sums decades after SNASP ceased to exist.

Mpelo told reporters that no money is owing. "The government, through the Ministry of Veterans' Affairs, paid the pensions, including seven years of compensation', she said.

The former SNASP members, according to a report in Monday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais', retorted that the minister "doesn't know what she's talking about'.

A representative of the ex-SNASP protestors, Adolfo Beira, declared "we can prove that we did not receive what she claims we received'.

The protestors say they were each promised five million meticais (about 78,000 US dollars, at today's exchange rate) but only received 280,000 meticais.

Beira said "this matter did not begin with this Minister', but with her predecessors (such as Mateus Kida and Eusebio Lambo).

"We never said we were not paid', added Beira. "They paid us crumbs which are not even a hundredth part of what was promised'.

He recommended that the Minister study the dossier on their demands. He also claimed that former President Armando Guebuza and the then head of the armed forces, Gen Lagos Lidimo, had shown no interest in solving the problem.

Beira made veiled threats. "We are organized, and it is up to them to solve the matter for better or worse. We are organized to make our claims peacefully, but if they prefer the use of force, we are also prepared for that'.