Africa-Press – Mozambique. A 34-year-old man was shot dead by police in Maputo city, allegedly for having broken the window of an agents’ car.
The incident took place on the 19th of June, but the body was only found on the 29th, in the morgue of the Maputo Central Hospital, after a prolonged search by the victim’s family. The police say that they will discover more information about the case, and only then will they comment.
Mourning chants are heard in the Fumo family, and eyes drenched with tears. Those who are apparently strong try to console others, while all try to forget the death of César Fumo, 34 years old, shot by the Police of the Republic of Mozambique in Maputo City.
The incident took place at around 9:00 p.m. in the Magoanine neighbourhood on the night of June 19, where the young man, after leaving work, went to seek entertainment.
“At around 9:40 p.m., he spoke to his mother to tell her he had left work and was in his usual place to enjoy himself a bit. After that, he disappeared,” the victim’s uncle, Ramiro Sitoe, said.
But, before disappearing, according to the family, Fumo threw a stone at a police car, causing damage to the vehicle – an act that cost him his life.
“When we heard about the shooting case, we went to the National Criminal Investigation Service Directorate to get an explanation. They told us that he took a stone and threw it at the police car, because he was drunk. That’s why the police fatally shot the young man, hitting him in one of his limbs,” Felimone Mucavel explained.
But no-one told the family about the incident. “There was a lack of communication from the authorities. If they had spread the information to other police posts, I don’t think the search would have taken so long,” Ramiro Sitoe observed.
In other words, after the fatal shooting, the police did not tell anyone about what had happened and, noticing the disappearance of their son, the relatives began the search that lasted ten days. The body was found in Maputo Central Hospital morgue, with evidence of having been shot. It had been taken there by agents of the National Criminal Investigation Service.
“When we got there, the body was already in an advanced state of decomposition, and we heard that he was beaten by the police. In fact, this only happened after many searches and it was only by luck that we found our son,” Sitoe said.
They were lucky enough to find the body, but unlucky enough to have lost a loved one to a death caused by PRM agents for an apparently banal reason.
“They say that the police car window broke, but the police vehicle belongs to the state. If they had asked us to pay, we would have,” said the victim’s father, despondently.
It’s too late to pay for the glass that was supposedly the reason for the 34-year-old’s murder, but justice can still be demanded. It’s the least that family members demand.
“I’m talking because I’m a man, but I haven’t eaten for a few days because I feel a lot of pain,” said Fernando Fumo. “Let justice be done, because anyone’s death is painful,” one family member appealed, supported by Felimone Mucavel. “The police can’t go on like this, killing people. They should handcuff him, not murder them.”
So far, it is not known how many police officers were involved in the death of the 34-year-old, or the exact place where it all happened, let alone the real motivations that led to the murder of César Fumo.
‘O País’ contacted the National Investigation Service for details, but was referred to PRM command in Maputo city, which promised to comment after gathering more information.
The remains of César Fumo were buried on Thursday.
By
Dário Cossa
