KILLING HIS OWN FATHER

Volume 1 1988

Testimony of Jose A. Francisco:

"I was a former member of Frelimo. I fought against the Portuguese colonialism...

“The Frelimo Minister of Defence, Alber to Chipande, personally executed his own father in the presence of 1 000 Frelimo cadres as an example for establishing the “new order”. This public murder was committed by stabbing his father in the stomach and ripping upwards until his stomach spilled on the ground.

“Joaquim Chissano, then chief of security, personally approved the execution, as he did all atrocities I witnessed. Later, as Foreign Minister, Chissano was the de facto head of the State Secret Police, SNA which implemented the system of concentration camps and political torture. His deputy, Jorge da Costa, defected from Mozambique in 1983 and revealed the files of Frelimo’s state-sponsored terror network, which included extensive input from the KGB, East German intelligence and the Cubans.

“I also witnessed mass executions in Calo Delgado detention centres. Here they were executed by bayonet, first being sexually dismembered. This was a regular occurrence; the largest single massacre I witnessed involved 120 individuals.

“The purge that followed Frelimo’s installation saw the establishment of Samora Machel’s infamous concentration camps, nationalization of property, and gross abuse of all human rights. Hunger and unemployment followed immediately. Soviet neo-colonialists proceeded to rape Mozambique's natural resources, including human resources. Children were sent overseas for indoctrination and Mozambique slave labour was exported— 10 000 to East Germarry, for instance. This process continues today. Our “independence” had been betrayed. Frelimo has merely exchanged Portuguese colonialism for an even worse form of Soviet colonialism.

“Until humanitarian organisations are willing to defy the regime and responsibly investigates both sides of the story, these bully tactics will continue, to the detriment of innocent Mozambiquans.”