Opposition parties in Mozambique accused the police of "brutal aggression" and "state terrorism" when they cracked down on peaceful demonstrations last Saturday in Maputo and other cities in the country.
Police used tear gas to disperse a march in Maputo in homage to the social intervention rapper Azagaia.
"The police had a duty to protect the population, but they started firing indiscriminately at the demonstrators. There were shots, brutal attacks, cries of despair from the demonstrators and the disproportionate use of weapons," said the president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Ossufo Momade, quoted by Lusa.
Considering the authorities' actions a "severe blow to democracy", Momade pointed out that the police violence violated the country's legislation on freedom of demonstration and assembly, stressing that these rights do not require any authorization from public bodies.
For his part, the president of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique (MDM), Lutero Simango, also repudiated last Saturday's violence, calling it "state terrorism".
"It was a display of state terrorism, which must be combated in all its dimensions," Simango said.
The party leader warned that repression would not stop society from exercising its constitutional rights, lamenting the fact that police violence was happening at a time when Mozambique was a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
The president of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), a state entity but independent of the government, Luís Bitone, accused the police of "excessive use of force" in the way they dealt with Saturday's march in Maputo.
"The Defense and Security Forces acted with excessive force, their role at that moment was only to protect the movement of people to avoid excesses on the part of the demonstrators," he said, speaking to the newspaper O País.
Bitone fears that Mozambique could be censored by other states and become the target of negative international "consequences".
"The consequences will be a moral condemnation, in other words, there will be censorship of other states against our country," said the president of the CNDH.
Luís Bitone pointed out that Saturday's events in Maputo show a step backwards in the country's reputation, emphasizing that Mozambique had "evolved a lot in the observation of human rights".
Bitone said he would ask the Public Prosecutor's Office for an investigation and the Ministry of the Interior for clarification on the authorities' actions.
A man was left without an eye and several people were injured following the police charge on Saturday against an attempt to march in homage to the social intervention "rapper" and activist Azagaia, who died on the 9th of an illness.
In addition to Maputo, other Mozambican cities have also had marches prevented by the police, even after they had been authorized by the municipal authorities.
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