Mozambique: Killings Target Lawyers, Judges

Several civil society organizations are calling for a return to justice in Mozambique following a series of killings targeting lawyers and judges in the country.

Carlos Mondlane, president of the Mozambican Association of Judges, said that in recent years, criminals have tried to intimidate and silence the justice system through attacks against judges and lawyers. Another group, the Mozambican Human Rights League, said the killings were going unsolved because of police indiscipline, corruption and an absence of professional ethics.

The most recent examples of assassinations of jurists included the killings of Giles Cistac, a French-Mozambican lawyer shot in Maputo in 2015; senior prosecutor Marcelino Vilanculos, slain in April of this year; and Dinis Carlos Silica, another prosecutor.

"Organized crime is rampant," Mondlane told VOA's Portuguese service. He said judges and prosecutors handling cases related to abductions and violent crimes such as homicides needed the most protection and often received death threats.

Kidnappings probed

When he was killed, Vilanculos was investigating the kidnappings of a Portuguese citizen and two Mozambican businessmen. His investigation led to at least five arrests. In 2013, he investigated two other abductions, in which four people were ultimately convicted.

Silica, slain in May 2014 in Maputo, was investigating cases of trafficking in persons to South Africa and Swaziland, abductions in Maputo, and drug trafficking — including the case of Mohamed Bashir, an infamous narco-trafficker accused of exporting millions of dollars' worth of drugs and overseeing expansive networks reaching Asian countries.

Each prosecutor had a reputation for being honest and professional.

According to the U.S. State Department, organized crime takes advantage of Mozambique's porous borders and proximity to the South African market to traffic in narcotics and wildlife and engage in human smuggling.

Cistac was a constitutional law expert known for defending the positions of the Mozambican opposition, the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO). He was a supporter of the RENAMO project to decentralize power in Mozambique, which was opposed by the country's ruling party, the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO). The lawyer's killer or killers have never been brought to justice, although the crime happened in broad daylight in the nation's capital.

Political assassinations

Other killings of public officials have plagued the country in recent months, including assassinations of members of the nation's three main political parties. The violence threatens to derail peace talks between FRELIMO and RENAMO. Mondlane hopes government officials can offer more protection to lawyers and judges because, he said, the killings are an attempt by organized crime to maintain control in the country.

For her part, the president of the Mozambican Human Rights League, Alice Mabota, is worried for the security not only of the legal community but also of all the citizens who live in Mozambique. Mabota said that "heinous crimes like murder and kidnapping occur in broad daylight," and she stressed that the police weren't taking appropriate actions.

Jurist Dinis de Sousa considers this issue to be larger than these cases involving the killings of judges and lawyers. In what was said to be politically motivated attacks, at least 10 high-profile figures have been killed since March 2015, according to Zenaida Machado of Human Rights Watch, who spoke to VOA in October. Machado added that the numbers were higher than those officially reported.

Meanwhile, the Mozambican justice minister, Isaac Chande, said the government had done everything possible to ensure that the administration of justice was efficient and that those guilty of homicides were brought to justice.

"We are working with all justice departments, as judges and prosecutors, to solve all those problems," he told journalists.

Anabela Guedes and Alvaro Andrade contributed to this report.

Strong International Coalition Must Back Ecowas to Resolve Gambian Crisis

     From the moment Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh, on the morning of July 22, 1994, led four other lieutenants to overthrow President Sir Dawda Jawara's government and started harassing innocent citizens, the media and ex-government officials, it became clear to most people that this young man had an evil heart.

He quickly developed the uncompromising resolve to hit at critics, beginning with the media, especially the Gambian Daily Observer, the country's only media institution that had the professional and technical capacity to tell the story of the coup to the world. And even those in Jammeh's inner circle, who quietly expressed reservations against the rash way in which he was handling power he quickly imprisoned. They included his own Vice Head of State and Interior Minister, both of whom Jammeh used to have the Daily Observer Publisher Kenneth Y. Best deported from The Gambia on October 30, 1994. Both the Vice Head of State and the Minister soon died in prison. Jammeh's first Finance Minister was later found burnt to death in a car in a town he had never visited; and The Point newspaper publisher and Gambian Press Union President, Deyda Hydara, was shot in the head on a street in Banjul.

Jammeh also forced into exile scores of the country's best known journalists and continued to rule the country with an iron fist.

It was in response to Jammeh's tyrannical rule that the resolute Gambian people bravely voted to defeat him in last week's elections.

The defeat was so decisive that Jammeh, to the surprise of most people, quickly called President-Elect Adama Barry to concede defeat.

And yet the evil in the man's heart persisted. It was so intense, so rigid that it could not permit him to do the right thing. With equal swiftness he reversed his concession and declared that the vote had been faulty, so he was holding on to power.

It was at that point that the international community intervened. Senegal, The Gambia's closest neighbor, condemned the reversal, followed by other nations, including Liberia, the United States and most especially the Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS), the African Union and the United Nations.

At the weekend Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is also President of ECOWAS, attempted to lead an ECOWAS delegation to Banjul to resolve the crisis, but the arrangements were not concluded. So first thing Monday morning President Sirleaf and her delegation bravely entered Banjul in attempt to resolve the crisis but received a cold shoulder from the young tyrant.

Why would Jammeh challenge the entire international community? What makes him think that he alone can challenge the entire international community?

The Gambia is very attractive to tourists, who flock their by the tens of thousands each year, bringing in the lion's share of the country's foreign exchange. Does Jammeh not realize that the international community could stop tourists from entering there? This would lead to immediate economic collapse, especially when the international community blocks the country from buying anything from The Gambia.

We call on the entire international community to back ECOWAS by imposing diplomatic and economic blockade against Jammeh to force him to concede. The UN Security Council must impose a no-fly zone over

The Gambia, making sure that no tourists visit the country. Hopefully this will bring Jammeh to his senses and compel him to realize that he is fighting a losing battle.

But the world cannot sit idly by and permit him to do this to his people and country.

We call on the UN, the European Union, the United States, the People's Republic of China, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the entire European Union, Russia to put their political, diplomatic and economic weight behind ECOWAS to force Jammeh to step aside and prevent him from any attempt to perpetrate violence against his people.

If he fails to do so, he should be arrested and turned over to the International Criminal Court just as Laurent Gbabo has been dealt with for the exact same reason--rejecting the will of the people who, through their vote, ousted him from power.

Legal Link International-West Africa Beaural.

WORLD SUPPORT CALLED UPON FOR UGANDA'S REFUGE CRISIS

 Uganda's Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa has called for international partnerships with Uganda's Settlement Transformation Project (2016-2021) that aims to achieve self-reliance and local settlement of refugees.

The Ugandan programme, officials say, aims to promote social development in the refugee hosting areas as a durable solution to challenges related to refugees, while protecting national and local interests.

Kutesa made the call on the margins of the ongoing High-Level Conference of the UN Central Emergency Response Fund in New York.

Uganda currently hosts over 900,000 refugees and asylum seekers from DRC, Somalia, Burundi and South Sudan - the highest recorded in a long history of offering asylum.

It is expected to top 1 million by year's end.

The Permanent Mission of Uganda to the United Nations in New York, in partnership with the UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) held the high-level side event at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The purpose of the event, co-chaired by Kutesa, was to highlight the work and challenges faced by Uganda's leaders and partners in implementing the transformational approach to addressing vulnerabilities and refugee needs in the country.

The event included a high level panel discussion that explored the current response, challenges and opportunities in redefining the response to refugees and host communities, national leadership and accountability, understanding the new Partnerships for action and listening to the new modalities for investment.

The discussion focused on experiences and approaches Uganda has had for the influx of refugees to date and highlighted current response by the international community and existing infrastructural and financing gaps.

Participants who included representatives of member states, business leaders and others in the event were also invited to consider investing in Uganda.

"Even as Uganda remains committed to maintaining one of the most progressive refugee policies; guaranteeing refugees' rights to work, movement and basic social services the international community needs to lend more support towards the refugee crisis that is exerting immense pressure on the country's infrastructure and host communities because of chronic under-funding," Kutesa told the press after the discussion.

Kutesa explained that Uganda has experienced a prolonged drought and the food security situation has deteriorated due to poor water and harvest management practices in some of the host communities.

The event further served to showcase innovative action by Uganda to overcome challenges in their response to host communities, refugees as well as those affected by climate change; it identified suggestions to reinforce modalities for investment and aid as well as partnerships for action in response to existing and projected needs.

Kutesa led a cross-sectoral delegation to New York including senior representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister.

KNOWLES CARMEL-Legal Link International-New York