PASCOALMOCUMBI'S INTENTION TO

Francisco Moises IP: 24.66.145.163 Jan 5th, 2003 - 11:11 AM

PASCOALMOCUMBI'S INTENTION TO The Executive Committee World Health Organization, Geneva Switzerland I was visiting the "Africamente" Portuguese Website dedicated to free discussion on issues regarding Mozambique the other day when my eyes caught sight of an article by "Sofrimento e Dor (Suffering and Grieving)" lamenting that a man responsible for crimes against humanity in Mozambique now intends to become Director General of the World Health Organization. I had been aware of the expressed intention of Pascoal Mocumbi, the Prime Minister of Mozambique, to become the next Director General of the World Health Organization. I had not thought of acting against it until Sofrimento e Dor's article drew my attention and pained my heart. Pascoal Mocumbi has been part and parcel of the Frelimo regime in Mozambique. As the article writer says at Africamente, he was one of the policy-makers and masterminds of Frelimo's oppressive regime as minister of health, minister of foreign affairs and now as Prime Minister and also as Frelimo Party's bigwigs. After independence in 1975 to today, Mocumbi has been one of the most prominent leaders of Frelimo. He with the late Samora Machel and Joaquim Chissano and their colleagues orchestrated a policy which unleashed a reign of terror in Mozambique with mass detentions and imprisonment without trial of real or imaginary enemies of the regime, forcible translocations of people from cities to rural areas in a Khmer Rouge-like style, summary executions and mass murders in concentration camps the Frelimo regime set up and called "re-education camps." The concentration camps were to be found all over Mozambique but mostly in the virgin forests of northern Mozambique where inmates died from exposure to cold or heat, thirst, hunger, untreated diseases and summary executions. The most favoured methods of executing the so-called enemies of the people were burying or burning them alive. There have been horrifying tales from survivors saying that prisoners would be forced to dig up holes into which they were forced to lie and other prisoners would be made to fill up the holes. In some cases hand grenades were tossed into holes to explode among and kill the prisoners before they were filled up. Grizzly tales told of people being sprinkled with gasoline or petrol and then set on fire while alive. How many people perished in Frelimo's concentration camps, is anybody's guess. But figures fluctuate between 75,000 to 100,000. This prompted the American Congress in 1985 to call Samora Machel Africa's Pol-Pot. Now it boggles the mind when we hear that Pascoal Mocumbi, one of the architects of the reign of terror and mass murder in Mozambique, intends to become WHO's Director General. Obviously, a lot of us Mozambicans find this offensive and disgusting and feel that this man, who is responsible for mass murders and crimes against humanity, should not be allowed to become WHO's boss. We wish to make it abundantly clear to the WHO that it is likely that it may have a boss with blood-stained hands who may one day cause it a lot of embarrassment and hurt when people will make a hue and cry against him. Have we forgotten the sad episode of Kurt Waldheim who had even become UN Secretary General before his shady past and murky role with the German Army during Second World War became known? His case prompted the United States into banning him from ever entering that country. Let's not allow this man, Pascoal Mocumbi, to become the leader of WHO, an organization which enshrines the essence of human dignity and respectability, principles which Mocumbi has not protected and cherished in Mozambique. Pascoal Mocumbi stands for all that which is dark and inhuman. He is therefore morally unfit to become WHO's Director General. Francisco Moises c: The High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Geneva International Court of Justice Peace Place, Carnegieplein 2, 2517 KJ The Hague Country Canada