beginning of this year the Portuguese
army has started to use chemical weapons
in the liberated areas of Cabo Delgado
with the aim of destroying the people's
means of subsistance. The testimony of
our militant, Atanasio Saidi, an agricultural technician, emphasises that the following crops were affected and destroyed:
cassava, sweet potatoes, bananas, pawpaws and pumpkins. This is confirmed
by an article which appeared in the London Sunday Times on 9th July, 1972.
According to the very precise details
given in the article, the herbicide used is
Convolvotox which is produced in South
Africa, and it was sprayed by South
African planes protected by Portuguese
aircraft. This illustrates the increased
collusion between the racist powers of
Southern Africa against our people's right
to life and freedom.
Through you, we address an urgent appeal
to the United Nations Organisation and to
world opinion in order that they do everything in their power to stop these geno-
cidal practices which defy the fundamental principles and international conventions aimed at protecting human life and
which can only be termed as a scorched
earth policy, if not ecocide.
Finally, we wish to draw your attention
to the legalised and institutionalised form
terrorism has taken on within the Portuguese army in Mozambique. Indeed, despite the detailed testimonies on the crimes
committed by the Portuguese army, testimonies not only from our people, but
also from objective foreign observers, no
measures have ever been taken against
those responsible for the crimes. On the
contrary, it is those who protest against
them who are thrown into prison. This
happened recently to four priests (2 Portuguese, the Rev. Fathers Sampaio and
Mello, and 2 Spaniards), who are now
being tried by a Portuguese military court
in Mozambique for having denounced the
crimes of the Portuguese army at Mkum-
bura. The 2 Spanish priests were arrested
in Rhodesia by the police of that country
and transferred to Mozambique. In this
connection we recall the overwhelming
evidence given by the White Fathers Missionary Congregation who decided to
leave Mozambique in May last year, appalled by the crimes and tortures inflicted on Mozambicans.
We also wish to voice our indignation
over the abominable atrocities committed
by the Portuguese army. It was the
South African paper, The Star, which
reported in its issue of 6th November,
1971, that in Tete Province Portuguese
soldiers  forced mothers to crush their
Another testimony
A 31-year-old Portuguese missionary, who
was given the choice of leaving Mozambique
or going to prison there, has arrived in Rome
with a documented report of massacres,
torture, and concentration camps, in the
province of Tete, where he served for two
years.
Father Luis's report, which deals only with
«about one-tenth of the province of Tete,»
in Northern Mozambique, gives the dates
and in most cases the names of the 92
people killed by Portuguese troops between
May,   1971   and   March   20  of this year.
He confirms that, between September 3
and 9, 1971, «the Rhodesian Army came to
the aid of the Portuguese in Mucumbura
massacring 18 people and then burning their
bodies.» Five of the victims were men,
whom he names. Four were women, including one who was pregnant, and the
others were children.
His report describes in detail the forms of
torture used by his fellow Portuguese.   He
children in mortars. The same paper also
reports that the Portuguese ordered civilians to leave their villages and the following day, when they were on their way
to another place, they were attacked by
helicopters and savagely massacred.
None of these facts has ever given rise to
a denial, an enquiry or a trial, which
proves that far from being isolated acts,
they are well and truly a systematic and
deliberate practice. In any event, one
does not have to look far to find the
justification for these acts. It is sufficient to put the words of the Commander-
in-Chief of the Portuguese army in Mozambique, General Kaulza de Arriaga.
In his «Lessons of Strategy)) from the
High Command courses 1966 - 1967
Vol. XII, he declared that «the Portuguese strategy in Africa should be aimed
at the realisation of an equilibrium between the black and white population)).
Within this perspective, after having hailed
((the exportation of African slaves to
Brazil as a good thing», he explains the
present aims of the Portuguese action:
((On the one hand the growth of the
white population; on the other, the
limitation of the black population)). He
couldn't be more explicit.. .
Before introducing our witnesses, we
wish, on behalf of our people and our
movement to reaffirm our belief in the
principles of respect for human life, freedom and justice between men, which
constitutes the corner-stone of our political line and our activity and, we believe,
says   that   apart   from   prolonged   physical
torture during interrogation, castration and
mutilations are common in the prisons.
lather L.uis came under the authorities'
eye when he was one v>i' two missionaries
chosen by an assembly of 36 priests and
nuns in his province to tour other missions
in Mozambique to inform them o\' the
situation    in    the    nortli   of   thc   country.
He says the new barbed-wire enclosed compounds in Tete called «aldeamentos», are
nothing but concentration camps and that
soon all Africans will be enclosed in them,
with about 250 people to a camp. Permission to leave can be obtained in theory,
but it is not easy in practice.
When the guerrillas cause any trouble in
the Tete area, thc Portuguese seize 10 to 20
people from thc camps and torture them -
or worse - as reprisal.
M THK GUARDIAN, Aug. 5, 1972 "
of the existence and development of the
world community itself. Through you,
we also appeal to world opinion to intensify its activity to safeguard these essential values, in order to help us in our
struggle for the liquidation of Portuguese
colonial rule and for the freedom and
independence of our people.
We also wish, through you, to convey to
the Human Rights Commission our desire
to see denunciations that you have undertaken, develop and become more sustained in order to achieve the systematic
and powerful denunciation of the crimes
to which the Portuguese colonialists are
increasingly resorting. We would also
like the attention of the Commission and
consequently the mandate of its Ad Hoc
groups, to bear more precisely on the acts
of collective repression, massacres and
war crimes in general committed by the
Portuguese repressive forces.
We think that in this way you are contributing to stay the criminal hands of
the colonial army and lessen the suffering
of our people. We also wish that arrangements be made to enable us to contact
the Commission under any urgent circumstances which require its intervention,
in addition to the contacts already established, which are certainly fruitful, but
still sporadic and sometimes too few and
far between when it comes to urgent
situations.
In conclusion, we wish to reaffirm, despite
all the suffering and sacrifices, our certainty in thc final victory.
10