Uprising in Mozambique

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34031, 20 December 1975, Page 15

Uprising in Mozambique

/N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, December 19. Loyalist troops and para-military forces battled for the second night running to put down an uprising by soldiers and policemen in Lourenco Marques, the capital of newly independent Mozambique, according to radio reports monitored in Johannesburg.

Gunfire echoed through the streets, and many dead and injured were reported on both sides. The fighting apparently began at mid-day on Wednesday, when about 400 troops and policemen mutinied, and attacked keyinstallations in the citycentre, including the town hall, the main radio station, and a power station. The shooting later spread through the city to the slums on the outskirts. The mutineers are understood to be rebelling against a purge in their ranks by the Marxist Frelimo Government which took power in Mozambique when Portugal withdrew six months ago. Radio Mozambique, reporting that the army, the police, and civilians were fighting the insurgents, promised that President Samora Machel would address the nation by radio yesterday, but the broadcast failed -to materialise.

Eye-witnesses say that a large number of helicopters were assembled at the city’s airport, which was closed. Communications with the city are virtually nonexistent. In one of the few telephone calls to get through yesterday, a secretary said that there was widespread shooting, and that people were sheltering in the bank in which she worked. There is no indication whether the fighting has spread outside Lourenco Marques, which, under the Portuguese, was a stylish resort-city on the Indian Ocean. Beira, Mozambique's second city, has a history of' opposition to the Frelimo.