In Mozambique, children who participated in pot-banging demonstrations were shot dead.
Children were crying as they said goodbye to a 16-year-old friend who was shot dead while banging pots and pans during an opposition-organized protest against the results of last month’s presidential election. The mourners at a cemetery in Maputo, the capital of crisis-stricken Mozambique, were remarkably young.
“Antonio was shot in the mouth, and the bullet went through the back of his head,” his uncle, Manuel Samuel, told the BBC. “We saw CCTV footage from nearby shops of police shooting at protesters,” he added.
Since Frelimo, the former liberation movement that has ruled the southern African state since independence 49 years ago, was proclaimed the poll winner, Antonio Juaqim’s murder serves as a heartbreaking reminder of the unstable political environment in the region. According to the electoral commission, Daniel Chapo, Frelimo’s presidential candidate, received a staggering 71% of the vote, while Venâncio Mondlane, his nearest opponent, received only 20%. Mondlane, an evangelical preacher who left the main opposition Renamo party to run as an independent for president, denied the announcement, claiming the poll was manipulated.
The election commission denied this, but Mondlane, who left the country out of fear of being arrested, mobilized his supporters on social media to express disapproval of the outcome. In response to Mondlane’s request to loudly express their opposition to an extension of Frelimo’s 49-year rule, residents have begun banging pots and pans in their homes every night at 21:00 local time (19:00 GMT).
Mr Samuel said the protest was first held on the night of 15 November when huge numbers of people took to the streets to bang pots, pans and bottles or to blow whistles. “It was as though a new Mozambique was being born,” he added.
However, Antonio was one of the people killed by police as the night came to a tragic end, according to Mr. Samuel. Since then, the majority of people have been protesting inside their houses, and every night at 21:00, the sound of pots and pans hitting the floor reverberates across Maputo. Four days after Antonio was killed, one of his friends gave the eulogy at his funeral at São Francisco Xavier Cemetery, saying, “You were so full of life and hope.” Now a bullet has wounded you.” Antonio’s friends sobbed as they laid flowers on his grave and then exploded colorful balloons over it to serve as a reminder that he was only a young boy.
“At the morgue I counted six bodies of young children,” Mr Manuel told the BBC.
“They are killing us and our future,” he added.
About 40 people, including at least 10 children, have been slain by police during the post-election protests, according to campaign group Human Rights Watch. Although Bernadino Raphael, the police chief of Mozambique, offered condolences to the deceased’ families, he blamed Mondlane’s followers for the fatalities.
“They are using children as shields in front of them while they remain behind,” he alleged . “We recorded 103 injured people, 69 of whom were police officers,” he said. The commander went on to say that police frequently had no option but to defend themselves against demonstrators who had resorted to violence, killing six cops and stealing, burning, and damaging property and cars.
According to Borges Nhamirre, an analyst with the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, this was the first time that protests in Mozambique had resulted in so many fatalities and property destruction. He claimed that it was evident that Frelimo had lost favor, particularly with young people who were “looking for some money, looking for jobs, looking for vocational training, looking for a plot to build their house.”
“They don’t care about who brought independence. The independence they want is their financial independence,” Mr Nhamirre said.
Chapo insisted that he and Frelimo had won in a free and fair election after the results were declared on October 24. He stated, “We are an organized party that prepares its victories.” He has remained relatively quiet ever since, awaiting the outcome of Mondlane’s attempt to have the outcome overturned by the courts. Many of Mondlane’s fans also answered his invitation to mourn the dead for three days (until November 22) by halting their cars and hooting at noon, seemingly in an effort to maintain the pressure before the verdict.
Alito’s buddies showed us a picture of him with what looked to be a gunshot wound in the back of his head, and a Mozambican flag was spread out on the floor near to burning candles. While Mozambique is going through one of its most volatile times since the introduction of multi-party democracy almost 30 years ago, it served as another reminder of how the election had cut short the lives of young people, and their friends and family were hopeful they would receive justice.
