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Fenceless Border Creates Land Conflicts

Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
NEWS
April 15, 2004
Posted to the web April 15, 2004
Maputo
The general commander of the Mozambican police, Miguel dos Santos, who is also
the chairperson of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Organization
(SARPCCO), said in Harare on Wednesday that the lack of demarcation along the
border between Mozambique and Zimbabwe has been originating land conflicts
between people living on both sides of the frontier.
Cited in Thursday's issue of the daily paper "Noticias", dos Santos said that
these land disputes have often led to physical assaults, and even to deaths.
Speaking to reporters on the third day of a visit to Zimbabwe, dos Santos could
neither give the exact extent of the unfenced stretch of the 4,212 kilometre
long common border nor the number of victims of such disputes.
He said that to try and sort out the situation, the police are to submit a
formal request to the relevant authorities in both countries to make the
necessary demarcation.
Dos Santos also said that the police of both countries have agreed to provide
more resources to patrol the common border, particularly the fenceless stretch,
in order not only to prevent land disputes, but also to combat all forms of
contraband, including trafficking in vehicles, cattle and firearms.
Speaking of SARPCCO activities, dos Santos said that the organization has been
instructed to speed up the process of returning to their rightful owners stolen
goods recovered by the police in any country within the Southern African
Development Community (SADC).
The idea is to harmonise legislation so that court cases concerning such goods,
seized in joint operations, are readily dealt with, since delays in the process
are blamed as the main stumbling block.
Dos Santos said that the meetings with his Zimbabwean counterparts concluded
that all decisions taken at a Maputo SARPCCO meeting on September last year are
being fully implemented.
To illustrate his point, he said that, for instance, joint operations between
Zambia and Zimbabwe managed to neutralise gangs of rustlers, and groups of
smugglers have been arrested between Zimbabwe and Botswana.

   

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