Addressing a Maputo press conference on Wednesday, the Renamo national spokesperson, Antonio Muchanga, said the victim was Abilio da Fonseca Baessa, who was once the deputy provincial director of the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat (STAE) in Zambezia.
Cited in Thursday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafaxâ€, Muchanga said Baessa was shot on Wednesday morning near a Mocuba police station, and is now undergoing medical treatment.
He claimed that the killings of Renamo members are an attempt to force Renamo to abandon its current dialogue with the government, but Renamo would not walk away from the negotiating table. Instead, the top Renamo leadership “is encouraging us to maintain our firmness and persistence in the dialogueâ€.
Muchanga claimed that about 100 members of Renamo have been murdered and 250 have disappeared. These figures appear to have been plucked from the air, since they bear no relation to the number of deaths confirmed by journalists.
Muchanga also flatly denied that his party is responsible for assassinating Frelimo members – although survivors of these attacks have no doubt that they were carried out by gunmen of Renamo’s illegal militia. The latest such murders were of two local Frelimo secretaries killed on Saturday night at Mutua, about 50 kilometres west of Beira.
Muchanga blamed the government for the murders of Renamo members, claiming that it had set up “death squadsâ€.
He even alleged that the Frelimo cadre conference, held in the southern city of Matola, had decided to assassinate commentators whose views are broadcast by the independent television station STV.
Post published in: Africa News