MAPUTO (AFP) — Human rights watchdog Amnesty International on Tuesday accused Mozambique police of killing and torturing people with impunity as the country struggles to deal with growing crime.
Amnesty International said police officers have used "excessive force" to deal with criminals because of public pressure to crack down.
"Police in Mozambique seem to think they have a licence to kill and the weak police accountability system allows for this," Michelle Kagari, deputy director of Amnesty's Africa programme, said in the report.
"In almost all cases of human rights violations by police -- including unlawful killings -- no investigation into the case and no disciplinary action against those responsible has been undertaken," the report said.
The report, entitled 'Licence To Kill', also noted that Mozambican police faced "numerous challenges stemming from high crime rates, a backlog of criminal cases in the judicial system, and occasional violence against police".
It said that these incidents had led to the police dealing with suspects and criminals violently and at times killing suspects.
The report mentioned the killing in February of protesters who were demonstrating in Maputo against hikes in transport fees.
At least three people were killed and 30 others were injured, some of them seriously, by stray bullets.
"The police have generally been unresponsive to the public, providing very little information to those who have lodged complaints against the police for human rights violations. Victims virtually never receive compensation for these violations," the report said.
Kagari said it was vital that any officer suspected of involvement in human rights violations be held to account.
"Police officers must be made aware that they cannot torture, beat and kill with impunity," she said.
"They must be held responsible for their actions if policing is ever going to change for the better in Mozambique."
Amnesty's report comes one day after Alice Mabota, the head of Mozambique's leading human rights organisation, Liga dos Direitos Humanos (League for Human Rights), said that the human rights situation in Mozambique had deteriorated in the past few months.
Mabota said a lack of resources for the justice system in Mozambique has contributed to the problem.
"Our police officers work without necessary resources," she said.
Mabota said the public has also resorted to meting out extrajudicial beatings against suspected criminals because of low confidence in the police force.
Violent crime is said to be on the increase in Mozambique.
"Our prison system now is an academy to criminals... After prison, they come out with the capacity to commit serious crimes," Mabota said.
The Mozambican police declined to comment on the report.
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