Good afternoon. The winds of change are continuing to blow through the Mozambican police force since President Daniel Chapo was inaugurated last month. In late January, Bernardino Rafael, the police general commander who compared protesters to terrorists and generally refused to admit that the police were ever brutal, was dismissed and replaced. Yesterday, Chapo also appointed a new deputy commander and two other senior positions. The new deputy, Aquilasse Manda, even admitted that the police may have committed “excesses” in the past.
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The replacement of not one but four senior police officers and the radical change of tone since the days of Rafael certainly indicates a wish from the government to demonstrate that the police are taking a new, less adversarial approach. There has also been a shift in police behaviour. Shootings of protesters have tailed off in the last few weeks, following the appointment of interior minister Paulo Chachine, who has spoken about the need for the police to behave ethically and that they should not be feared by the public. There has also been a reduction in reports about so-called “death squads” murdering protesters or opposition activists at night.
