Mozambique News Agency
AIM Reports
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No.208, 1st June 2001
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Contents
Renamo blames UN for lack of money
Montepuez trial suspended
Problems in PROAGRI finances
Charges laid against six suspects over Cardoso murder
Vieira on tobacco prospects
Poor roads scare off investors
Businessmen in Manica "weak and disorganised"
EU aid for Mozambique
Japanese aid for rural water supply
French aid for road repairs
Twenty per cent of pregnant women HIV+
Over three million cases of Malaria in 2000
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Renamo blames UN for lack of money
Mozambique's main opposition party, Renamo, has attempted to blame the
United Nations for its financial difficulties. Speaking to reporters on 30
May, Renamo general secretary Joao Alexandre claimed that at the end of its
mandate in 1994, the UN peace-keeping mission in Mozambique, ONUMOZ, left
Renamo with debts of $10 million.
Alexandre claimed that there was a debt of 1.5 billion meticais (at 1994
exchange rates, this figure is equivalent to only $230,000) in
telecommunications alone, and Renamo was gradually paying off this sum to
the Mozambican telecommunications company, TDM.
There was never any obligation on ONUMOZ to pay off any debts run up by
Renamo. However, there was a trust fund, operated by the UN, to which donors
contributed in order to finance the transformation of Renamo from a military
organisation into a political party.
According to the figures provided by the then UN special representative in
Mozambique, Aldo Ajello, this fund provided Renamo with $17 million in the
1993-94 period. Renamo has never accounted publicly for any of this money.
Alexandre claimed that the debts of the past have prevented Renamo from
functioning properly. Telephone lines in Renamo offices, both in the
provinces and in Maputo, are continually cut by TDM for lack of payment
But, due to its parliamentary representation, Renamo receives a subsidy from
the state budget of two billion meticais (about $100,000 at current exchange
rates) a month. What was Renamo doing with this money ?, reporters asked.
Alexandre claimed it was used to pay wages to Renamo full time workers, and
to support Renamo delegations abroad. He said that Renamo still has offices
in Kenya, Portugal and the United States.
Dhlakama promises Renamo congress
A meeting of the national council of Mozambique's main opposition party,
Renamo, began in Maputo on 30 May to prepare the party's congress, scheduled
for November.
Cited by Radio Mozambique, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama said the congress
had been repeatedly postponed because of Renamo's financial difficulties.
Dhlakama said Renamo now had two billion meticais (about $100,000) available
to organise the congress. The National Council is expected to fix the venue
and precise dates for the congress.
Dhlakama said the National Council will also discuss Renamo strategy for the
2003 municipal elections, and the 2004 presidential and parliamentary
elections.
President still awaiting Dhlakama's call
President Joaquim Chissano said in Maputo on 30 May that he is still waiting
for the leader of Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama, to contact him about resuming the
dialogue between the government and Renamo, that Dhlakama unilaterally broke
off in March.
Speaking to reporters on his return from the African Development Bank (ADB)
meeting in Spain, President Chissano declared that he has always been
prepared to continue the dialogue, not only with Renamo, but with any other
party or social group, to seek solutions to the country's problems.
"As for Mr Dhlakama's statement that he is prepared to resume the dialogue,
I am waiting for him to tell me so because, until then, I know nothing. When
I am informed then I will react", said President Chissano.
Dhlakama told reporters on 28 May that he wanted further talks - but he
posed a number of pre-conditions, notably that his meetings with the
President be prepared by specialised commissions, made up of members of the
government and of Renamo.
He explained that the task of such groups would be to prepare documents to
be submitted to the two leaders in scheduled meetings for signing.
At the time Dhlakama took the decision to interrupt dialogue there were
government/Renamo groups working on defence and security issues, the public
administration, and legal, parliamentary and constitutional matters. Other
groups demanded by Dhlakama, on economic questions, and on the mass media,
had scarcely begun functioning, before the dialogue was interrupted.
Dhlakama pulled out of the dialogue in March because PresidentChissano
refused to accept his demands for either early general elections, or the
appointment of governors nominated by Renamo in the six provinces where
Renamo obtained a majority of the votes in the 1999 general elections.
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Montepuez trial suspended
The Cabo Delgado provincial court has suspended the trial of five policemen
accused of responsibility for the deaths of at least 83 prisoners in a
grossly overcrowded police cell in the town of Montepuez last November.
A dispatch from the court, issued on 23 May, stated that the trial had to be
suspended because the prosecutor, Beatriz Buchili, who is the Cabo Delgado
chief attorney, has fallen ill. The court dispatch, signed by judge Alfredo
Phire, ordered a ten day suspension, which means that the trial should
resume on 4 June.
So far in the trial all five accused policemen have given their testimony,
as has Dr Eugenio Zacarias, the head of the team of pathologists who carried
out autopsies on some of the victims, establishing that they had died of
asphyxiation.
The provincial director of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), Juma
Mucequesse, was scheduled to give evidence on 24 May - the accused claim
that PIC was responsible for the mass deaths (although PIC does not run the
cells in the Montepuez police command), and have tried to shift the blame
onto the shoulders of Mucequesse.
The delay also means that the verdict, initially set for 5 June, has been
postponed. No new date for the verdict and for any sentence has yet been
set.
What happened to the bodies?
The court on 22 May demanded to know what happened to the victims bodies.
According to the trial report, Eugenio Zacarias said in his evidence that
when the team reached Montepuez they only found 33 bodies in the morgue,
although they were informed that 75 people died in the cell (a further eight
are known to have died two days earlier).
The court asked who had authorised the removal of the other 42 bodies, and
where they had been buried.
Two of the accused policemen, Horacio Nhoca and Terciano Mitale, were
recalled to the witness stand. Mitale claimed he had nothing to do with
removing the corpses, but Nhoca denied this, and said that they had both
taken part in this operation.
But Nhoca claimed they were acting on instructions from the provincial
director of the Criminal Investigation Police (PIC), Juma Mucequesse. Nhoca
said Mucequesse "authorised relatives of the victims to take the bodies
before any autopsy".
Nhoca said that the removal of the bodies was halted on receiving orders to
that effect from the provincial capital, Pemba.
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Problems in PROAGRI finances
The Agriculture Ministry has recognised that there are serious problems in
the financial management of the National Agricultural Development Programme
(PROAGRI), but denied that money is being stolen.
An audit undertaken within the Ministry detected problems and recommended
organisational measures, including training staff at provincial level in
financial management.
PROAGRI finances have come under criticism from the donors. European Union
representative Javier Puyol, speaking on behalf of the donors, warned on 21
May, at the opening of a week-long PROAGRI assessment meeting "The
preliminary results from the audit are not encouraging. The external
auditors will probably stress serious deficiencies in the PROAGRI accounts
of 2000".
For months, some provinces and some entire PROAGRI components had not
received any new funds at all: Puyol attributed this to the failure to
present reports of how previous tranches had been used.
At the same time, about $2 million which should have been used for PROAGRI
purposes had been channelled to the Agricultural and Livestock Census
instead.
Puyol said there had been some improvements in PROAGRI financial management
"but these improvements are not sufficient".
The practical response to these concerns was the signing of a memorandum on
the joint management of PROAGRI funds, establishing the responsibilities
both of the government and of the donors.
Agriculture Minister Helder Muteia, cited in "Noticias" on 23 May, said that
when the auditors made their recommendations in November "we adopted a plan
of action which is being implemented, but which is not reflected in the
current report. We expect that results from this plan will be seen when the
2001 accounts are audited".
This plan included hiring accountants and economists to work in the
provincial agriculture directorates, and the approval of a new manual of
financial management procedures.
"We think that this year is a turning point", said Muteia, "a year of
changes in practices and procedures. With the volume of resources we have
(PROAGRI is budgeted at over $40 million a year for five years), we must
demonstrate responsibility, accountability and transparency".
But Muteia thought it was normal to run into problems when embarking on a
new and large-scale integrated programme such as PROAGRI. "It was not
possible to design a gigantic programme such as this, and achieve 100 per
cent satisfactory results from one moment to the next", he said.
As for the provinces that had not received new funds, Muteia said this was a
decision taken by the Ministry itself, because of "serious lapses in
management". "We had to choose between continuing to send money with the
funds not being properly accounted for, and cutting the funds until the
problem is solved", he said.
As for the Agricultural and Livestock Census, $2 million had indeed been
advanced for this, in the expectation that the money would be reimbursed by
the World Bank.
The census is a responsibility of the National Statistics Institute (INE),
which the World Bank had agreed to fund. But given the delays in receiving
the World Bank money, the Agricultural Ministry had agreed to advance the
money, on the understanding that it would be repaid as and when the INE
justified its expenditure.
"What's happening is that the INE justification for expenditure is coming in
very slowly", said Muteia, "and in some case World Bank rules do not fit
Mozambican reality. The census is undertaken in remote areas, and there are
places where there are no receipts. But the census staff have to eat, and to
undertake other expenses, and the way this is justified doesn't fall into
World Bank categories".
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Charges laid against six suspects over Cardoso murder
Six months after the assassination of Mozambique's best known journalist,
Carlos Cardoso, editor of the independent newsheet "Metical", the Public
Prosecutor's Office, at the end of its preliminary investigation, has
charged six people with the crime.
According to "Metical" on 22 May, the Public Prosecutor has charged
businessman Ayob Abdul Satar and former bank manager Vicente Ramaya with
ordering the killing.
The four others - Ayob's brother Momade Assife Abdul Satar, Anibal Antonio
dos Santos Junior (Anibalzinho), Carlitos Rachid, and Manuel Fernandes - are
accused of carrying out the murder.
Cardoso had investigated the business activities of the wealthy and powerful
Abdul Satar family: in particular, he had written relentlessly about the
country's largest ever bank fraud, in which the equivalent of 14 million
dollars was siphoned out of the Commercial Bank of Mozambique (BCM) in 1996,
on the eve of its privatisation.
The key figures accused of this fraud are members of the Abdul Satar family
and Vicente Ramaya, who was in charge of the BCM branch where the fraud took
place.
The BCM fraud has never come to court thanks to high-level corruption in the
Attorney-General's office, also investigated by Cardoso. A warrant has now
been issued for the arrest of the Attorney who was originally in charge of
the BCM case, Diamantino dos Santos, whose whereabouts are currently
unknown.
The Cardoso murder case now enters a new phase of investigation in which the
defence lawyers are officially informed of the charges, and are given access
to the case file. They may request further investigations which they regard
as useful for establishing the innocence of their clients.
This phase will last for three months, after which the prosecution will
issue the definitive charge sheet, and deliver it to the investigating
magistrate. It is this magistrate who will decide whether the evidence
against the accused is strong enough for the case to go to trial.
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Vieira on tobacco prospects
The recently-appointed General Director of the Zambezi Development Planning
Office (GPZ), Sergio Vieira, has expressed hopes that tobacco leaf
production in Tete province will reach 10,000 tonnes in the 2001 planting
season.
A yield of 10,000 tonnes is considered to be the threshold that would make
the construction of a tobacco processing factory viable. Mozambican tobacco
is currently being processed in Malawi due to the low production and lack of
processing units locally.
Vieira said that it was necessary to increase production of tobacco leaf in
Mozambique, so that the country can free itself from dependence on the
Malawian factories. His optimism is grounded on production levels of about
8,000 tonnes in 2000.
Last year the Malawian authorities banned the import of foreign tobacco leaf
for a month, in what was regarded as an attempt to protect low quality
Malawian tobacco.
Ironically, most of the tobacco produced in Mozambique is grown by companies
that are owned by Malawians.
The Mozambique Leaf Tobacco company told AIM that it has invested $1 million
and employs 150 full-time workers. Taking into account the peasant growers
and their families, the company's activities benefit about 60,000 people.
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Poor roads scare off investors
The advanced degradation of the roads leading to Espungabera, capital of
Mossurize district, in the central province of Manica, is driving away
investors who might otherwise be interested in exploiting the coffee, tea,
cotton and tobacco grown in the district.
Francisco Manuel, the Mossurize district administrator, told journalists,
accompanying President Joaquim Chissano on a visit to the province, that the
region enjoys a favourable climate and soils, but while the roads are in a
run-down state nobody will put money into projects in the area.
However, Manuel said that peasant farmers want to alter the scenario by
establishing associations in order to implement agricultural projects
jointly.
The district was also affected by severe flooding earlier this year which
paralysed its socio-economic activities. It was cut off from the provincial
capital Chimoio and about 4,000 residents are still dependent on emergency
aid.
Manuel said that there was encouraging progress in livestock farming,
extension of the health and education networks, as well as the
rehabilitation of dirt roads.
The district has currently 6,000 head of cattle arising from a livestock
programme which benefits 150 families.
He added that 171 kilometres of roads have been repaired under a "Food for
Work" scheme.
The school network has increased dramatically. There were 11 schools in
1996, and there are currently 45, one of which is a pre-university school.
There are five health units (four posts and one health centre). Work is
continuing to upgrade and equip the Espungabera health centre, with $375,000
of Finnish funding.
By August this health centre will have five new buildings where there will
be an intensive care unit, a small operating theatre, a laboratory, a
pharmacy and other services, as well as an increase in the number of beds
for the maternity and general medical wards.
The current health network covers only 31 per cent of the estimated 122,000
residents of Mossurize district.
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Businessmen in Manica "weak and disorganised"
The business class in Manica province is "weak and disorganised", accused
provincial governor Soares Nhaca on 22 May, after the vast majority of local
businessmen failed to attend a meeting intended to launch the Business
Development Project (PoDE) in the province.
Nhaca was angered to find that so few businessmen bothered to attend that
they were outnumbered by members of the Manica provincial government.
PoDE has $40 million available for programmes to build up local businesses.
Among those supporting the project are the World Bank, the European Union
and the British government.
But the Manica businesses seemed singularly uninterested. "We used all means
available to invite people to attend this meeting", said Nhaca. "Apart from
invitations sent personally to each of the business people, announcements
were made over Radio Mozambique. Despite this they have not shown up".
Nhaca noted that the local business association is not functioning, and that
there is no unity of purpose among the Manica business class.
The governor left the meeting early, saying he saw no point in remaining in
a room where most of those present were other members of the provincial
government.
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EU aid for Mozambique
The European Commission on 23 May announced an aid package of 329 million
euros (about $281 million) for Mozambique.
The aid is to be disbursed over three years under the Cotonou Agreement, the
successor to the series of Lome agreements, governing relations between the
member states of the European Union, and the 77 ACP (African, Caribbean and
Pacific) nations.
Of this sum, 274 million euros will go towards macro-economic support,
sector policies, and other programmes that contribute to the struggle
against poverty.
The other 55 million euros is intended for what the release describes as
"unforeseen needs", such as emergency aid, contributions towards debt relief
initiatives, and making up shortfalls caused by instability in export
revenues.
The European Commission, in collaboration with the EU member states and the
Mozambican government, is drawing up "a strategy of support that is
consistent with the government's Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute
Poverty".
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Japanese aid for rural water supply
The Mozambican and Japanese governments on 31 May signed an agreement under
which Japan is to provide 990 million yen (about $9.24 million) for
improving rural water supply in the central province of Zambezia.
The money will be used to build 148 new boreholes and to rehabilitate 13
existing ones in about 90 villages in the north of the province.
Some of the funds will be spent on an education programme so that the
villagers will be able to manage and maintain these water sources.
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French aid for road repairs
The French government on 23 May made available 6.5 million euros ($5.6
million) for the repair of roads in Maputo province.
The money will be used to rehabilitate a nine kilometre stretch of the main
north-south highway in the Incomati flood plain in Manhica district, about
80 kilometres north of Maputo, and a 24 kilometre stretch of the road
between the towns of Magude and Xinavane.
Both these roads were severely damaged by the massive floods on the Incomati
in February 2000.
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Twenty per cent of pregnant women HIV+
Twenty out of every 100 pregnant women who attend ante-natal consultations
in Mozambican health units are infected with HIV, the virus that causes the
lethal disease AIDS, according to Martinho Djedje, spokesperson for the
Coordinating Council of the Health Ministry, which has been meeting in
Maputo since 28 May.
Djedje said the situation was made worse because there is no systematic
follow-up to assist the HIV-positive women. "So one of the packages we want
to develop is follow-up, in order to reduce the number of mother to child
transmissions of HIV", said Djedje. This could, for instance, be done fairly
cheaply by administering a single dose of the drug Nevirapine to the mother
and then to the new-born baby, a method that has been shown to reduce
drastically mother-to-child HIV transmission.
The general use of anti-retroviral drugs to prolong the lives of HIV
sufferers is more controversial, and Djedje told AIM that the matter was
still under analysis.
However, there was general consensus in the Coordinating Council that
anti-retrovirals must be introduced. But a pre-requisite, given the
complexity of treatment with these drugs, is to train up staff first, so
that patients can be educated on how to use anti-retrovirals.
Rui Bastos, an adviser to the Ministry on HIV/AIDS, told reporters that it
is quite impossible for Mozambique to treat all HIV sufferers with
anti-retrovirals, given the current cost of these drugs. He pointed out that
a year's treatment for one person costs at least $12,000.
The Mozambican government, Bastos said, should therefore join the
international movement to force down the prices of anti-retrovirals, and
ensure that generic versions of these drugs are available.
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Over three million cases of Malaria in 2000
Health units across Mozambique registered a total of over three million
cases of malaria in the year 2000, out of the country's approximately 17
million inhabitants.
According to a document produced by the Health Ministry and presented to its
Coordinating Council in Maputo, 1,637 of the malaria patients are known to
have died of the disease. This is an increase on both the number of cases of
malaria, and the number of deaths, recorded in 1999.
The report warns that the official figures are an underestimate, since many
malaria patients do not seek medical assistance, because the nearest health
unit is too far from their homes. The Ministry also believes that most
malaria deaths are not recorded by the health units either.
The document reports cholera as a serious public health problem, noting that
in 2000, there were 25,703 diagnosed cases of the disease, resulting in 154
known deaths.
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Mozambique News Agency,
c/o 114 Stanford Avenue,
Brighton BN1 6FE,
UK.
Tel: +44 (0) 7941890630
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