“Denunciation of violence against activists”, 10 October 2019

On Monday, 7 October 2019, Anastácio Matável, Executive Director of the Gaza Province NGO Forum – FONGA, lost his life in the city of Xai-Xai, a victim of murder…[M]atavel was committed to activism, and he advocated for environmental causes and biodiversity conservation for over two decades, striving equally for social justice and the protection and defense of the rights of local communities. That’s how, since 2011, Justiça Ambiental has been cooperating and working with him in close partnership in various cases of environmental and social injustice, especially the fight against the usurpation of community land (land grabbing) in Xai-xai by the Chinese rice production company, WAMBAO…[A]ll of this has happened 8 days before the presidential elections…[T]he campaigning for these elections have been marked by violence in all parts of the country…[B]ased on previous experiences of similar murder cases, Mozambican society does not doubt that Anastácio Matavel was murdered by the death squads…[D]eath squads are believed to act under the regime’s orders to safeguard the interests of the ruling party as a way of intimidating and / or removing people who in one way or another try to rouse the people about environmental issues, human rights and bad governance in the country…[I]t is important to remember that these are not the first cases of violence, attacks and murders of anyone who thinks differently from the regime and freely expresses his/her opinion, as this has been characteristic in the country in the past years, especially in election years, as we could testify it around the period of the 2014 elections…[T]he Mozambican people need to feel free and secure and that we are really live in a state governed by the democratic rule of law…