Gunmen Attack Train in Mozambique

The Mozambican police has accused Renamo of attacking a coal train.

Mozambique: Government Planning to Ban All Exports of Logs

Maputo — The Mozambican government is proposing a total ban on all exports of unprocessed logs, regardless of the tree species from which they come, reports Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.

The national director of forests in the Ministry of Land, Environment and Rural Development, Xavier Sakambuera, told the paper a bill on this matter has already been drafted and deposited with the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

There have been many haphazard attempts in the past to outlaw the export of logs from particular species of hardwoods, but this would be the first blanket ban on the export of all logs. As such it is bound to meet with ferocious opposition from logging interests, who are busy destroying Mozambique's forests to sell unprocessed wood to foreign buyers, often from China.

A complete ban means that forest wardens and customs inspectors will no longer have to determine what kind of trees the logs come from, since all log exports will be illegal.

Current estimates are that Mozambique is losing 220,000 hectares of forest a year. This is due not only to logging, but to the uncontrolled bush fires associated with slash and burn agriculture, and the clearing of land for building purposes.

Sakambuera said the government hopes a ban will greatly reduce illegal logging, and will create more jobs in the timber processing industry.

“There will be a modernization of technology in the timber industry”, he forecast, “which will add value to the product at all stages in the production chain”.

Sakambuera added that, with an export ban in place, the government hopes to harmonise the prices charged in marketing wood throughout the country.

Mozambique Debt More Than Reported

The country's actual total debt will be significantly more than present estimates of U.S $12 Billion according to a recent study.

Graca Machel receives award

Mandela’s widow Graca Machel received the Global Citizenship Award on the fourth day of the Clinton Global Initiative’s 10th Annual Meeting at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, yesterday. The award recognises citizens whose works have extended from their home town to the globe. Machel who came out of mourning her late husband in July looked pretty in pink and shared her wisdom during her acceptance speech and also during a session at the meeting.

Rapists will Avoid Jail in Mozambique

The law, which was intended to protect victims of rape, favors the rapist. If the rapist is convicted of the crime but marries the victim, the law authorizes that his sentence be suspended.
Activists have marched against a new penal code currently before parliament that would include a Portuguese colonial-era provision giving convicted rapists five-year suspended sentences if they wed and stay married to their victims for five years.

Mozambique Tables Rape Victim Marriage Law

The government faces criticism after unanimously endorsing the first reading of a new penal code which, if passed into law, will allow a rapist to avoid prosecution if a marriage takes place.

Airline crew members robbed at gun point

Unknown assailants on Wednesday morning attacked and robbed at gunpoint members of the crew of a Mozambique Airlines LAM plane as they were on their way to Maputo International Airport to begin their day's work.  The robbery occurred at about 5.30 at a set of traffic lights on the road from from the centre of the city to the airport.  The Nissan Urvan in which the LAM crew members were travelling stopped at a red light and was then attached by six armed with pistols.  Two of them immobilized the driver and took the keys from the ignition.  The rest of the gangs took all the bags of the crew members out of the boot of the vehicle.  This is the second such incident involving airline.  Pilots so far this year on 15 January an attach was reported against 2 pilots of the Portuguese airline TAP.  They were travelling in a tax which was stopped by five armed men using pick up.  One of the gang entered the tax and forced the driver to drive to a more remote area of the city.  The thieves then obliged the 2 pilots to hand over all the money in their wallet.  No one has yet been arrested in connection with these thefts.