AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT 2016/17

In August, a parliamentary inquiry
commission was established to investigate,
but it had a majority of FRELIMO members
and was boycotted by RENAMO. The
commission’s findings were discussed in
Parliament on 9 December in a closed
session. The report had not been made
public by the end of the year.
Mozambique’s human rights record was
examined under the UN Universal Periodic
Review (UPR) process in June; Mozambique
accepted 180 and rejected 30
recommendations. Recommendations on the
ratification of the International Convention
against enforced disappearance and the
Rome Statute of the ICC, and on freedom of
expression and corporate accountability were
among those rejected. 1
LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Members of the armed forces, police officials
and secret service agents reportedly
committed human rights violations against a
number of people they suspected to be
members or supporters of RENAMO. The
violations included extrajudicial executions,
torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary
detentions and destruction of property. There
was continued impunity for such crimes
under international law and human
rights violations.
On 10 May, Benedito Sabão, a subsistence
farmer from the town of Catandica, Manica
province, was arbitrarily arrested, ill-treated
and shot at by suspected secret service
agents, allegedly for supporting RENAMO. He
survived the attack but continued to receive
threats. 2 Those suspected of criminal
responsibility for the attack had not been
identified, let alone brought to justice, by the
end of the year.
In June, a group of Mozambican
subsistence farmers in a refugee camp in
Malawi said that their village in Tete province
in Mozambique had been invaded by four
vehicles with about 60 civilians armed with
guns and machetes; the village had been
labelled a RENAMO stronghold. The
attackers set the village ablaze and torched
crops that the farmers lived off. The refugees
believed that these men were members of
the armed forces.
RENAMO members and supporters
reportedly looted health facilities and carried
out attacks on highways and police stations,
resulting in a number of casualties among
the general population, as well as attacking
the police and armed forces. The government
failed to investigate and prosecute crimes
against the general population committed by
members and supporters of RENAMO.
In May, local and international media and
civil society organizations reported the
discovery of unidentified bodies and a mass
grave near the Gorongosa region. An
investigation was launched in June, but
neither the bodies nor those suspected of
responsibility had been identified at the end
of the year.
On 8 October, Jeremias Pondeca, a senior
RENAMO member and part of the mediation
team to end the conflict between RENAMO
and the government, was shot dead in the
capital Maputo by unidentified men believed
to be members of a death squad composed
of security officers. Those suspected of
criminal responsibility for the attack had not
been identified at the end of the year.
REFUGEES AND ASYLUM-SEEKERS
According to UNHCR, the UN refugee
agency, nearly 10,000 Mozambicans sought
refuge in Malawi and Zimbabwe during the
year. The Mozambican government did not
recognize them as refugees, but considered
them as economic migrants.
FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
Intimidation and attacks against people
expressing dissenting or critical views,
including journalists and human rights
defenders, occurred throughout the year.
On 23 May, political commentator and
university professor José Jaime Macuane was
abducted outside his home in Maputo by
unidentified men believed to be members of
a death squad composed of security officers.
The men shot him in the legs and dumped
him by the roadside in Marracuene district,
30km north of Maputo. The kidnappers told
262 Amnesty International Report 2016/17