MAPUTO — Human rights group Amnesty International criticised Mozambique on Monday for failing to investigate and prosecute police officers suspected of unlawful killings.
Amnesty released a report criticising what it called a lack of justice in police brutality cases in the southern African country, where the organisation says at least 46 people have been unlawfully killed by police since 2006.
Amnesty called on Mozambique's government to take a tougher stance on excessive police violence and ensure justice for victims' families in cases of unlawful police killings.
"The government seems to have permitted and even encouraged a number of obstacles to be put in the way of victims' families as they sought justice," said Erwin van der Borght, head of Amnesty's Africa programme.
"The families of victims face almost insurmountable challenges and only the most persistent and well-off have been able to get some small measure of justice."
Amnesty blamed police officers' tendency to "protect their own" for contributing to a lack of justice in extra-judicial police killings.
The report recommends the government launch impartial investigations into police killings, make autopsies mandatory in police shootings and pay reparations to victims' families.
Mozambique is one of the world's poorest countries, and has struggled with police corruption and brutality in the face of low wages, high crime rates and a back-log of criminal cases.
The Mozambican Human Rights League has called on authorities to improve police training and implement law enforcement reforms in order to put an end to cases of torture and summary execution at the hands of police.
Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gUJWvd16_RGqSyQkBcwGbu_QOHYw
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