NELSPRUIT – Tourists and journalists have recently been the victims of violence in Mozambique. An armed robbery of South African tourists occurred in Chidenguele on October 25 and journalists were attacked and detained by armed forces last Thursday.
At Chidenguele, which is situated between Xai Xai and Inhambane, friends visiting their holiday home were traumatised by violent armed robbers.
Lowvelder spoke to Ms Bernadine Lampacher who originally lived in Barberton, and was one of the victims. She said she and five friends had gone through the day before to the holiday home.
“It was the early hours of the morning when three men broke in through my bedroom/bathroom window, I woke up with them over my bed.”
She said they tried to pull her duvet off her and then pointed a gun in her face. “They spoke English, told me to sit up and they tied my hands behind my back with wire.”
She said they took her to her friends’ room where she vaguely saw through the dim light that they were also tied up. “I thought they were dead.They told me to lie down too – their demeanour was aggressive – and they tied my feet and covered all our faces so we couldn’t see.”
They then demanded guns and money and took one woman to open the safe. “They kept cocking their guns and saying they wanted guns. We explained that we were South Africans and didn’t have any with us.”
Lampacher said one of the men had a panga. “At one stage he walked past me with it and I thought that’s it, my life was over.”
“They finally gagged us and left, taking one of my friends’ Toyota Rav, our jewellery, phones, computers and hard drives.”
She said the worst was that they couldn’t contact the local police and those in a nearby town had no vehicles. Those who eventually came couldn’t speak English and had no fingerprint kits.
“Yet they were friendly to us. The locals were amazing and helpful, even offered to make us tea.”
Recently mining conglomerate Rio Tinto evacuated all its foreign staff due to the conflict between the government and the rebel group Renamo and the spate of kidnappings in the country.
Club of Mozambique reported another violent clash in which journalists of independent television station TIM were detained and savagely beaten by members of the Mozambique armed forces (FADM) last week in the southern city of Matola.
They reported that the incident arose from a bitter dispute over land between residents of the Matola neighbourhood of Malhampsene and the local FADM barracks. The dispute had raged for the past three weeks, and has resulted in soldiers beating up residents with apparent impunity.
The soldiers violently dispersed the crowd and fired shots into the air.
The TIM crew covering the conflict found itself caught up in the violence, and was physically attacked.
According to a statement issued by the TIM management, their chief news editor, Mr Alexandre Rosa, was brutally attacked but managed to seek refuge in a nearby house Later photographs showed him arriving unconscious at the Sommerschield Private Clinic in Maputo. Cameraman Mr Claudio Timana was also beaten and dragged into the barracks along with his camera. TIM driver Mr José Cumbe managed to escape.
Some hours later Timana was released, and his camera returned. The commander of the barracks provided first aid and apologised for the behaviour of his men.
