from ARMANDO DOMINGOS in Maputo, Mozambique
Mozambique Bureau
MAPUTO, (CAJ News) – MOZAMBIQUE has reportedly expelled two journalists from former colonial master, Portugal, in the latest twist to the controversial elections in the Southern African country.
The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) reports the deportation of Alfredo Leite and Marc Ricardo Silva this past weekend.
Authorities are quoted as saying the pair was not properly in the country but was on tourist visas rather than work visas.
However, MISA believes the expulsion is about the journalists’ coverage of the violence that has followed the October 9 elections.
“MISA regrets that instead of concentrating on effective solutions to the post-election crisis, the Mozambican authorities are insisting on the wrong strategy of harassing journalists,” it stated.
“Instead of harassing journalists and other messengers of the current crisis, authorities should concentrate on solving the problem, which arose from an electoral process that was neither transparent nor honest.”
The nation of over 34 million people has plunged into violence after the announcement of elections late October.
Daniel Chapo of the ruling Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) has been declared the winner but the opposition alleges the vote was rigged and the result inflated.
FRELIMO has ruled since independence in 1975.
Scores of people, including children, have been killed during the response by security forces to the crisis.
The army has been deployed to aid police’s intervention.
On Sunday, outgoing president, Filipe Nyusi, visited a fish market in the Marracuene area of the capital, Maputo, where he pledged peace.
The market is run mostly by women.
“Inside the market, our mommies asked us to stay firm in searching for solutions so that there will be peace in our country,” Nyusi said.
“According to them (women), it is with peace that they can carry out their activities for the support of their families,” the president added.
Crisis24 has forecast further opposition protests through at least mid-November.
“Thousands of protesters are likely to join nationwide rallies in the coming weeks,” it stated.
Protest activity will likely occur in large urban areas, such as Maputo, Beira, and Nampula, as well as the terror-prone northern provinces of Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Zambezia.
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is to hold an emergency summit this week to seek solutions to the crisis in Mozambique.
– CAJ News