Crime Situation Improving, Claims Minister

11 May 2011

Maputo — Mozambique’s Minister of the Interior, Alberto Mondlane, on Wednesday denied opposition claims that the crime situation in the country is getting worse.

Speaking in the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, in a question and answer session between the government and the deputies, Mondlane dismissed as “exaggerated” a claim by the main opposition party, Renamo, that “crime has taken the country by storm”.

The police statistics suggest that there has been a drop in crime. In the first quarter of this year, said Mondlane, the police recorded 5,572 crimes. In the first quarter of 2010, the figure was 6,994 crimes. The crime rate had thus dropped by 20 per cent.

Most of the crimes recorded were crimes against property, mostly theft. This type of crime, Mondlane said, accounted for more than two thirds of the total.

He also dismissed a Renamo claim that the police was only interested in protecting members of the government and of the ruling Frelimo Party. He stressed that it is the legal obligation of the police to guarantee the personal security of all citizens.

As for the brutal attack by a unit of the riot police against a demonstration by unarmed security guards on 6 April, Mondlane repeated his condemnation of this behaviour – but claimed that only three members of the 20 strong unit were responsible for the savage beatings.

The demonstration arose from a wage dispute between the security guards and their employer, the London-based company Group Four Securicor (G4S). Mondlane said that policemen on duty outside the G4S office tried, initially, to persuade the guards to negotiate with the G4S management, and this avoided a violent demonstration by the guards on 30 March.

But on 6 April, the G4S management simply refused to talk to the 100 or so guards gathered outside. This time police calls for patience fell on deaf ears, and the demonstrators tore up fencing, smashed windows and set a vehicle on fire. Mondlane said the police were afraid that the fire might spread to a fuel tank containing 15,000 litres of diesel.

Reinforcements were requested first from the ordinary police, and then from the riot police. The latter brought the situation under control, claimed Mondlane, stopped the destruction and halted the spread of the fire.

But this operation “was unfortunately besmirched by the excessive use of force by three of the 20 members of the unit”. He also condemned the attempts to obstruct the work of reporters at the scene – but claimed only one member of the unit had threatened the press.

The ensuing investigations, said Mondlane, showed that the police who beat up the protesting guards “had received no instructions from their immediate commander or from any other higher ranking officer to act in this way”.

Disciplinary measures were now being taken “against those policemen who violated the principles and norms that govern police actions under such circumstances”.

Asked by the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), what the government is doing to improve the security of maritime transport in the light of the threat posed by Somali pirates, Mondlane said that, in coordination between the Interior and Defence Ministries, special forces had been sent to “critical points” in the Mozambique Channel, and the armed forces were being equipped with the necessary resource to undertake naval patrols.

Training activities are under way, he added, “in the framework of surveillance and control of the coast and procedures against piracy.

At regional level, Mondlane continued, a tripartite meeting had been held between Mozambique, Tanzania and South Africa on measures against piracy. “Joint operations” were being held with the neighbouring countries, he added, but gave no details.

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