Three Mozambican civil society organizations today filed a complaint demanding that telecommunications operators be held accountable, including compensation for damages caused, for the recent blocking of Internet access during the post-election protests.
“With the main action, the civil society organizations intend to ensure that the entities involved are held effectively accountable, demand compensation for the damages caused and ensure that practices that violate human rights and democratic principles are not repeated,” reads an article by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDD) published today, announcing the legal proceedings.
This is a joint action involving the CDD, the Center for Public Integrity (CIP) and the Center for Civil Society Learning and Training (CESC), which in November filed a precautionary measure against the operators Movitel, Vodacom and the state-owned Moçambique Telecom (Tmcel), shortly after Internet access restrictions were recorded, with a favorable decision from the court in early December.
According to the CDD, the process will be accompanied by other actions that “will ensure that operators are held accountable before the National Institute of Communications of Mozambique”, the country’s telecommunications regulatory body.
In November, the Mozambican Minister of Transport and Communications admitted that restrictions on the Internet, especially on social networks, are the result of the operators’ own actions, so that the network would not be used to “destroy” the country, in the context of the post-election protests.
“They themselves certainly took measures to prevent the Internet from being a collective good, not an evil used to destroy our country”, said Minister Mateus Magala.
At least 130 people have died in post-election protests in Mozambique since October 21, according to a report released this week by the Decide Electoral Platform, which monitors the electoral processes in Mozambique, which also indicates that 385 people were shot.
Presidential candidate Venâncio Mondlane said on Monday that the announcement of the results of the general elections by the Central Committee, expected to be on December 23, will determine whether Mozambique “moves towards peace or chaos”.
The results of the October 9 elections announced by the National Electoral Commission (CNE) gave victory, with 70.67% of the votes, to Daniel Chapo, supported by the ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo), but they still need to be validated by the Constitutional Council, the final court of appeal in electoral disputes, by December 23.
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