The recently appointed Commander General of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, Joaquim Adriano Sive, recognizes that in some cases the police behaved badly when dealing with civilians during the post-election protests.

"If there were issues like that, which I think in some cases we didn't do very well, the job from now on is to improve our performance, to have a quality approach to our population," he said, after taking office.

Sive said it was essential that the corporation make efforts to regain the public's trust, which was tarnished during the demonstrations.

"If we don't have the comfort, support and backing of the population, we will be able to do little or nothing," he acknowledged.

At the forefront of the fight against crime for his mandate, Joaquim Sive highlighted the elimination of kidnappings and advocated greater capacity for institutions to deal with crime.