I wrote a post back in June describing some unrest that had begun
brewing in this central part of Mozambique. To make a long story very short,
the long-time opposition party, RENAMO, starting kicking up a fuss about
election laws and made a number of demands that the ruling party, FRELIMO did
not want to meet. Many believe that RENAMO is mostly concerned with getting its
share of recent mineral wealth, while others think that its leader simply felt
he was becoming irrelevant and wanted to regain political importance. Here is a still quick, but more detailed overview
(in Portuguese, I will keep looking for a good English version).
Since June, attacks have continued, off and on, mostly
confined to Sofala province, with a few in the provinces to the north. A
government/military convoy has been escorting all traffic that passes over a
particularly dangerous part of Mozambique’s only north-south highway, the EN1.
On October 21, government forces surrounded and raided RENAMO’s main camp,
failing to capture the opposition leader, but provoking RENAMO to call off the
1992 Rome Peace Accords that put an end to 16 years of civil war. Since then,
there have been numerous attacks on vehicles on the EN1, including those being
escorted by the military.
Much of the political conflict behind the violence surrounded the
municipal elections to be held November 20. RENAMO boycotted the elections, not
running a candidate in any of the 53 municipalities. For some time, RENAMO
claimed it would not even let the elections be held if its demands were not
met. People in the central region were living in a state of fear, not knowing
if or when the conflicts would begin to spread from Sofala, not knowing if they
would be able to vote, and in general not actually knowing what was happening.
You see, I want to give you lots of links to stories about what has been
happening, but I face two problems in doing that. The first is language: most
of you reading this are in the US and don’t speak Portuguese, so I would rather
provide English language links. But, the international coverage of the
conflicts here has been very limited. When articles have been published, they
tend to lack a certain nuance: “RENAMO Declares End to 1992 Peace Deal.”
“RENAMO Denies Government Invitation to Dialogue.” RENAMO declared the end to
the peace deal after the government forces had surrounded and attacked their
headquarters. Shortly after this, government forces also attacked their
political offices in the city of Beira; offices occupied by civilian workers of
a still-legitimate political party. RENAMO refused to meet for dialogue, at
least in part, because the government continues to deny their requests for the
presence of neutral mediators and continues to raid any location where they
think RENAMO’s leader may be hiding.
I in NO WAY support the actions of RENAMO or those acting in RENAMO’s
name when they shoot civilians driving on the EN1 or raid medical centers, but
the story here is not black-and-white, good-guy/bad-guy, either. Articles that
lay all the blame on one side without acknowledging that the government also
plays a role are making gross over-simplifications.
People I talk to in my city do not support RENAMO, in fact they don’t
support anyone who resorts to violence as a means to express their
dissatisfaction. Many have come to support a newer opposition party that
started off as a splinter from RENAMO, but that has so far kept its opposition
in the political ring: o Movimento Democrático de Moçambique, or MDM. Because the truth is that many people
feel that the current government is not supporting their basic democratic
freedoms, is not open to hear opposing points of view, and many feel it is
moving more in the direction of suppression.
This brings me to the second problem I find in trying to provide you
links to articles about what has been going on. Even to provide links to
Portuguese-language news, I have very little confidence in the reliability of
what is published. Since these conflicts began, fofoca has been spreading like wildfire. Whole villages empty out
in a panic because of rumors of RENAMO fighters coming in their direction.
People report raids on munitions stores, troop movements, threats via text
messages. And every time there is a confrontation between government forces and
RENAMO forces, the number of casualties reported by word-of-mouth is much
higher than that reported in the news.
The main sources of news on television and print are state-run and here,
that means FRELIMO run. There are some independent sources that I have begun to
rely on: @Verdade is a free newspaper that relies significantly on citizen
reporting. CanalMoz is another. They are both very active on Facebook and
Twitter, and express a range of opinions, including some critical of the
government. They tend to report conflicts faster than other sources and include
“unofficial” numbers of casualties. Consistently, the numbers that come from
“official” reports, i.e. state-run media, have been significantly lower than
those reported first by independent sources.
However, when I talk with friends and colleagues here, they say that
even then independent sources are seriously underreporting the level of
conflict and bloodshed in Sofala. People with friends and family there say that
there are ongoing fights that never make the news and that the number of
casualties has been much, much higher. Because there has been so much fofoca, I didn’t know what to believe. It
seemed likely that the truth probably was somewhere in the middle. But I found,
as someone used to a culture of 24-hour news, nothing-can-stay-hidden-for-long,
papa-razzi, etc., I found it hard to believe that there could be large number
of people dying without word getting out.
Then, on Monday, reports started coming out about a truck accident in a
town just outside Chimoio. On Saturday, a truck carrying the bodies of soldiers
killed in a confrontation with RENAMO had blown a tire and overturned on the
highway. Specifically, the truck had been carrying thirty bodies of soldiers killed on the previous day in Muxúnguè.
But, the news published by @Verdade on Friday had only reported two deaths and
three serious injuries. So, with time, I find myself becoming more and more skeptical of the
news being published.
On Wednesday, the municipal elections occurred without major violence.
At the last minute, RENAMO announced it would not interfere with voting. Preliminary
results show that FRELIMO has won most municipalities, but MDM has won at least
two mayor-ships and put in a good showing in many cities. Unfortunately, there
were a few violent incidents including tear-gas fired by the military on crowds
in at least three cities and live rounds being fired in at least two. Tragically,
five deaths have been reported in Quelimane, one of the cities where the
opposition candidate was elected mayor. Shots were fired into a crowd that had
stayed at the polls to observe the counting process and more were fired the
following day into a crowd celebrating the MDM victory.
Crowds stayed at polling stations in many areas, because the people know
there is a high chance of fraud. Unfortunately, many reports have been coming
out in the days since the election of everything from parties pressuring minors
to register to vote illegally, party members arriving at polling stations with
piles of pre-filled-out ballots, ballot boxes disappearing and reappearing, to various
power cuts during counting. There was even a check written in one opposition-led
municipality to purchase the provisional results. There were reports of
intimidation and detention of opposition supporters. Basically, there was peace
overall, but there were also lots of problems. And I find myself wondering
about what isn’t being reported.
I have so much to say about this whole period of conflict and elections,
and I will continue to post as I process it, but I am still wrapping up the
semester here and short on time. However, I wanted to be sure to get something
up today because it is the 13th anniversary of the death of Carlos Cardoso,
a Mozambican journalist who was gunned down in the street in Maputo while in
the midst of an investigation into corruption. Today, no discussion about press
freedom can pass without someone mentioning the name Carlos Cardoso. People still fear reprisal for speaking out against
what they perceive as wrong.
I have my criticisms of the American media. I think that Jon Stewart
does invaluable work calling out hypocrisy, laziness, bias, etc. But for the most part, the American media is
free to report the stories that need to be reported and when stories fall
through the cracks, lots of times it is because of disinterest on the part of
the American people. I may have thought that freedom of the press was important
before, but I really took it for granted. It has been quite an experience
living in a country enduring civil unrest and knowing that there is no real way
of getting news that is reliable.
So, more to come on the situation here later, but for now, if you are in
the US, go buy a newspaper or email a letter to the editor or read a magazine
or call your local news station and give them a tip on a story. I will never
take the news for granted again.
---
Carlos Cardoso founded the newspaper Metical
and ran it until his death in 2000. It continued to be published for a year
after he was killed. The entire run of the Metical
has been archived here: http://www.cip.org.mz/metical/index.asp,
including this report of his murder on November 22, 2000: http://www.cip.org.mz/metical/index.asp.
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