United Nations rapporteurs today urged the Mozambican authorities to immediately stop the violence and repression against demonstrators, journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders, the High Commissioner for Human Rights announced today.
Following the country’s October 9 elections, “consistent reports suggest that violence and repressive measures used against demonstrators in peaceful protests, which continued until November 7, caused at least 30 deaths, injured 200 people and led to the arrest of at least 300,” according to a press release from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
“The violations of the right to life, including that of a child, the killings of unarmed demonstrators and the excessive use of force by police deployed to disperse peaceful protests in Mozambique are deeply disturbing,” said the rapporteurs and experts cited in the statement.
The group of special rapporteurs, who are the largest body of independent experts in the United Nations human rights system, called on the Mozambican authorities to immediately and impartially investigate all these “unlawful killings.”
Several demonstrations in recent weeks have challenged the integrity of the electoral process, the OHCHR said. The experts also called on the authorities to put an end to the violence and ensure an environment in which all Mozambicans can participate fully and equally in political processes and express themselves without fear. The enforced disappearances – notably that of three journalists since Wednesday – in the context of electoral violence have “a lasting impact on the democratic fabric of States”, they warned. Restrictions on media freedoms were also widely reported, including attacks, intimidation and harassment of journalists, intermittent internet and mobile network service blockages, they lamented. “Human rights defenders who denounced irregularities in the electoral process or who participated in protests were intimidated and threatened”, the experts added. “We call on the Mozambican authorities to facilitate access to information for all and condemn the widespread interruption of internet services, which allegedly coincided with the announced demonstrations and marches”, they concluded. At least 11 people have died and 16 others have been shot since Wednesday in three Mozambican provinces in protests against the election results, the electoral platform Decide revealed today.
Mozambique is now in the third day of the fourth phase of strikes to contest the election results called by presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane, who denies the victory of Daniel Chapo, supported by the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo, in power), with 70.67% of the votes.
This phase follows the street protests that paralyzed the country on October 21, 24 and 25, and the general strike that lasted several days, also called by Mondlane, with nationwide protests and a demonstration in Maputo on November 7, which caused chaos in the capital, with barricades, burning tires and police firing gunshots and tear gas throughout the day to disperse protests.
Venâncio Mondlane announced that the protests will continue until the electoral truth is restored
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