Observatório
de desenvolvimento de Pemba – Cabo Delgado, Moçambique
Dez razões
indiscutíveis, para visitar Pemba
A terceira maior Baía do Mundo uma das grandes maravilhas
por descobrir
Texto: Estacios Valoi
12/06/15
Pemba é de uma beleza natural indescritível,
praias magníficas de águas cristalinas e calmas, carregadas de espécies
marinhas de beleza mundialmente reconhecida desenvolvendo-se num habitat
coralífero, também inigualável onde a matéria orgânica resultante de defecarem
a céu aberto foi totalmente banida.
A animação cultural reúne a
gastronomia e a tradição num prato único, servido em qualquer restaurante ou
unidade hoteleira da zona, perfeitamente monitorizada e divulgada junto dos
operadores turísticos.
Animação nocturna, com discotecas e
bares que privilegiam não só a cultura moderna vigente em qualquer destino
turístico do mundo, mas também a componente cultural moçambicana em geral e
local em particular, como atractivo especial e exclusivo para visitantes de
todas as idades.
A Baia, carrega consigo uma grande
variedade de actividades turísticas organizadas que vão desde os safaris
fotográficos da fauna selvagem, às de snorkeling, mergulho, pesca desportiva e
camping nas zonas mais fantásticas reservadas para o efeito e legalmente protegidas.
Unidades hoteleiras de qualidade e
para todas as bolsas, onde as comodidades mínimas requeridas pela actividade
turística, tais como o fornecimento de água potável e energia eléctrica, estão
asseguradas.
Policia Camararia em dias de ressaca
Facilidade de deslocação assegurada
pelos transportes públicos de baixo custo (chapas) ou em viaturas de Rent-a-Car
de custo muito acessível, e em que o turista ou visitante não corre qualquer
risco de ser parado quatro, cinco, seis vezes num percurso de cinco quilómetros
dentro da zona urbana, a pretexto de ajudas para combustível ou para refresco
de arrefecimento dos elementos da patrulha, pois isso já está incluído no valor
do aluguer, sendo da responsabilidade da empresa locadora garantir esses
pagamentos tal como acontece com qualquer outro residente habitual.
Atendimento de grande qualidade à
chegada ao aeroporto, onde o turista é recebido como alguém que vem
voluntariamente contribuir para a economia local, em afirmação solidária para
com um povo que procura um lugar nos destinos turísticos mundiais, deixando
para segundo plano a sua vontade de gozar umas boas férias num paraíso distante
rodeado das necessárias e justas comodidades.
Fácil acesso aos necessários vistos
de visitante, apesar da obrigatoriedade de um convite de um residente ou de
prévia reserva assegurada em unidade hoteleira, termos de responsabilidade e
fundo de maneio para a estadia, coisas exigíveis em qualquer destino turístico
do mundo e apesar também, das dificuldades reconhecidas aos departamentos
encarregados para o efeito (consulados).
Grande facilidade de escolha de
companhia aérea para viajar, com ligações a qualquer parte do mundo e sobretudo
a outros destinos turísticos, tornando o destino Pemba mais competitivo e uma
opção muito mais agradável.
Bela mas deserta
Destino nacional e/ou internacional por
via aérea razoavelmente económico e atractivo já que comparado com outros
destinos a partir da Europa para as américas do Norte, Central e do Sul, da
Africa do Sul só ficam de fora os custos de estadia, o que não tem realmente
expressão significativa. Só a título de exemplo, viaja-se de qualquer ponto da
Europa para o Brasil por 7 dias em regime de meia pensão ou até de pensão completa
por um custo total quase idêntico ao de uma viagem de avião de
Lisboa/Pemba/Lisboa.
Pemba é de facto um local magnífico e
uma atracção turística em potência. Assim deveria ser olhado pelos responsáveis
e por todos aqueles que sentem no seu íntimo o desejo que as razões aqui
apontadas para visitar Pemba fossem verdadeiras, e não uma plataforma irónica
para descrever as “10 razões
indiscutíveis para não visitar Pemba”.
Official collusion in Northern Mozambique’s ivory poaching
By
Hazel Friedman
- The Star
- Please re-publish
Two hundred metres from Pemba’s popular Wimbi Beach towers an
opulent mansion. Initially it could be mistaken for the home belonging
to one of Mozambique’s burgeoning oil, gas and mining millionaires. But
the owner of this mansion, Dora Manjate, is a public servant. She is the
former Police Commander of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s northern-most
province.
Dora Manjate
Manjate is one of many officials implicated in the ivory poaching
scourge currently afflicting Mozambique. It is suspected that her
mansion has been funded by profits from this trade.
She is accused of
facilitating the smuggling of ivory for Chinese companies, particularly,
the ‘Mozambique First International Development’ or Mofidi – a forestry
company owned by Chinese businessman Liu Chaoying. In 2011 a large
ivory consignment was discovered camouflaged among the timber in
Mofidi’s shipping containers. Although six government inspectors were
suspended for their involvement, Mofidi was let off the hook.
Dora and mansion
A 2013
undercover investigation by the Environmental Investigation Agency also
exposed the friendship between Mofidi’s Chaoying and Mozambique’s
Minister of Agriculture, Jose Pancheco. The minister has refused to
comment on the relationship.
In 2014 a customs official who attempted to search one of Mofidi’s
containers was locked in a cell for eight days, allegedly under
Manjate’s orders.
‘Anyone who tries to confront the commander is threatened or
arrested’, says Estacio Valoi, a Mozambican investigative journalist,
who has exposed official corruption on all tiers of Mozambique’s
criminal justice system.
Despite a brief suspension in the wake of
Valoi’s investigations, Manjate was simply transferred to another
province, without being charged. She has not responded to Valoi’s
repeated attempts to contact her for comment.
Valoi describes ivory poaching in Northern Mozambique as slaughter on
an ‘industrialised scale‘. He cites 15 cases involving armed poachers
in the Quirimbas National Park, in Cabo Delgado, between 2009 and 2013.
The cases were forwarded to the police, the prosecuting attorney and the
provincial court – with no outcome.
Although these cases date to 2013, in 2015 alleged complicity by
Mozambican officials continues, unabated. For example, in April this
year two Cabo Delgado policemen were arrested on charges of ivory
smuggling. Like Manjate, they are merely links in a chain of corruption
that is subverting efforts to effectively fight Mozambique’s poaching
scourge.
The corruption appears so pervasive that global conservation bodies are demanding that sanctions be imposed against Mozambique.
At an international CITES meeting in Bangkok during March 2013,
Mozambique was singled out for its lack of political will to stem the
scourge and was urged to implement punitive laws against poaching. The
government subsequently introduced stricter wildlife legislation but
these laws have not yet been passed.
At a follow-up meeting convened by the CITES Standing Committee (SC)
in Geneva, during July 2014, Mozambique was identified as one of eight
countries of concern in relation to illegal trade of rhino and elephant
products.
The SC recommended that Mozambique compile a detailed National
Ivory and Rhino Action Plan (NIRAP) to be submitted to CITES by 31
October 2014. Mozambique submitted only the first draft of its NIRAP to
CITES in January 2015. It has yet to finalise the new Conservation Law,
further delaying efforts to crack down on the poaching epidemic that is
destroying not only Mozambique’s wildlife population, but the rest of
the continent’s natural reserves as well.
But Mozambique is not the only country displaying a disturbingly
sluggish approach to the crisis. In April 2014 South Africa signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mozambique covering rhino
poaching. At the time, Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa
hailed the memorandum as ‘a game-changer’.
A year later, an
Implementation Agreement consolidating the MOU has not even been signed.
In fact, very little practical headway has been reached between the two
countries, apart from a low-key meeting held in March, between Molewa
and her Mozambican counterpart, Celso Ismael Correia, to discuss joint
anti-poaching initiatives with Mozambique’s Fauna Bravia Unit around the
Limpopo National Park.
‘Africa’s wildlife crises provide spectacular examples of rotten
leadership,’ says conservationist, Ian Michler, who has exposed the
nefarious links between poaching and political power in South Africa,
Mozambique and Tanzania.
The link between poaching, profit and political power has augmented
the scale of the slaughter. Poaching levels are the worst they have been
since 1989, when CITES declared an international ban on the ivory
trade. Between 2009 and 2014 a staggering 170 tons of ivory was smuggled
out of Mozambique.
While the growth of ‘conspicuous consumption’, by China’s new
affluent class has increased the demand for ivory, it cannot be supplied
without official collusion. From the savannah to the sea, whether
transported in small consignments or massive containers, there are
always official palms to be greased, ensuring eyes are conveniently
averted from the illicit cargo being trafficked, via Tanzania, Zanzibar
and the Middle East, to Asia.
For example, during October 2014, in the village of Chamba,
intersecting the border of Mozambique and Tanzania, members of Niassa’s
anti-poaching task units were ambushed and assaulted after arresting a
suspected poacher attempting to cross the border into Tanzania.
Shockingly, the perpetrators were not poachers, but members of the
Mozambique Border Police – the very authorities who should be fighting
alongside the scouts to combat poaching.
Even at station level, corruption is rife, as confirmed by the recent
so-called ‘escape’ of two of Mozambique’s most notorious poaching
kingpins: Antonio Bernardo and Paolo Nyenje. Bernardo is linked to
poaching in the Kruger National Park and Nyenje allegedly has close ties
with Tanzanian syndicates. Both have been arrested several times for
poaching and weapons possession, yet subsequently released, allegedly by
bribing prosecutors and police officers.
In October 2014 the pair were
re-arrested and detained at Mecula Police Station. A week later, both
absconded, apparently through a tiny toilet window. Bernardo was
subsequently recaptured but Nyenje remains a fugitive. No officers at
Mecula Police Station were arrested for aiding their escape.
The rot seeps through every level of officialdom, from traditional
village chiefs and police officers to the highest echelons of political
power. Even Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party, has been accused of using
revenue from the illegal ivory trade to fund its 2013 10th anniversary
congress in Pemba.
At the time the government refused to comment on the
allegations. A report published in April this year by the Portuguese
Institute of International Relations and Security accuses former Frelimo
military officials of providing political protection to criminal groups
involved in poaching. In exchange for the profits they reap from
poaching deals, they protect the syndicates from prosecution.
Weapons
and uniforms used by the Mozambican armed and security forces are often
found in poaching areas.
In fact, army and police officers, public prosecutors and politically
connected Mozambicans are often regarded as ‘untouchable’. Those who
expose their corruption run the risk of being killed. The most visible
rewards of this nefarious link between profits and power can be seen
along the Pemba coastline, in the form of mansions, like the house
belonging to Commander Manjate, built from a trade steeped in violence
and greed.
Hazel Friedman is a Senior producer with Special Assignment. She has
assisted Valoi with his investigations into poaching in Northern
Mozambique.
