VZCZCXRO3070
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHTO #0289/01 0571107
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 261107Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY MAPUTO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0065
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0353
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MAPUTO 000289 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR G/TIP, G, INL, DRL, AF/RSA, AF/S 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM KTIP PHUM KWMN SMIG ELAB KFRD ASEC PREF
MZ 
SUBJECT: MOZAMBIQUE: NINTH ANNUAL TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
REPORT 
 
REF: A. STATE 5577 
     ¶B. 08 STATE 132759 
     ¶C. 08 MAPUTO 651 
     ¶D. 08 MAPUTO 322 
     ¶E. 08 MAPUTO 261 
 
------------------------ 
OVERVIEW OF TIP SITUATION 
------------------------- 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Mozambique is a source and possibly a destination 
country for men, women, and children trafficked for the 
purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation.  The use of 
forced and bonded child laborers is a common practice in 
Mozambique's rural areas, often with the complicity of family 
members.  Women and girls are trafficked from rural to urban 
areas of Mozambique, as well as to South Africa, often with 
the promise of employment and/or education, for domestic 
servitude and commercial sexual exploitation in brothels; 
young men and boys are trafficked to South Africa mainly for 
farm work and mining.  The IOM and the Mozambican Police 
(PRM) estimate that annually 1,000 Mozambicans are trafficked 
to South Africa.  Trafficked Mozambicans labor for months in 
South Africa without pay before "employers" have them 
arrested and deported as illegal immigrants.  Trafficking of 
human organs to support the traditional healing industry in 
South Africa and Mozambique is relatively widespread. 
Traffickers are typically part of networks of Mozambican 
and/or South African citizens; however, involvement of larger 
Chinese and Nigerian syndicates of human traffickers has been 
reported.  Zimbabwean and Malawian women and girls are likely 
trafficked to Mozambique for sexual exploitation and domestic 
servitude. The Ministries of Interior, Women and Social 
Action, and Justice are most prominently involved in 
anti-trafficking efforts, although a general lack of 
financial and human resources greatly limited their ability 
to address the problem. 
 
¶2. (SBU)  The Government of Mozambique complies with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, having 
made significant efforts to do so over the past year. Post 
recommends that Mozambique be removed from the Tier 2 Watch 
List due to its significantly increased efforts to combat 
trafficking in persons. While the government did not 
prosecute and convict arrested traffickers, it did ensure the 
passage of anti-trafficking legislation, developed public 
awareness, and began to address the issue of officials 
suspected of accepting bribes to overlook trafficking crimes 
or free traffickers. 
 
----------------------------- 
INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION 
----------------------------- 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Mozambique's National Assembly unanimously passed a 
comprehensive anti-trafficking law in April 2008, becoming 
the first country in SADC to adopt such legislation.  The new 
law, which went into force in late 2008, provides for 
significant prison sentences for those found guilty of 
recruiting, transporting, sheltering, or otherwise assisting 
in trafficking in persons.  The law also outlines protection 
and prevention measures, government support of trafficked 
persons, and whistleblower protection.  The GRM agreed to 
budget $360,000 in support of enforcing the new law. 
 
¶4. (SBU)  Mozambican law prohibits rape (excluding spousal 
rape) but was not effectively enforced.  Penalties ranged 
from two to eight years' imprisonment if the victim is 12 
years of age or older, and eight to 12 years' imprisonment if 
the victim is under the age of 12. Prostitution is legal, 
although it is governed by several laws against indecency and 
immoral behavior and restricted to certain areas. 
 
¶5. (SBU)  Many lower-ranking police and border control agents 
continue to accept bribes from traffickers, hindering 
Mozambique's prosecution efforts, though TIP training is 
ongoing.  As Mozambique's new anti-trafficking law entered 
into force, the government can now for the first time arrest 
and prosecute suspected traffickers and those who assist in 
the trafficking of persons, though there were no trafficking 
prosecutions in 2008. 
 
¶6. (SBU)  Police reported breaking up several trafficking 
schemes, arresting several drivers and facilitators, but not 
 
MAPUTO 00000289  002 OF 003 
 
 
the traffickers behind the operations. Before the new 
anti-trafficking law entered into force, the PRM was only 
able to charge alleged traffickers with mistreatment and 
abuse.  For example, two Turkish nationals were found guilty 
and sentenced to jail time and a fine for the mistreatment 
and sexual abuse of 17 Muslim boys between the ages of 12 and 
17 who were trafficked from their homes in northern 
Mozambique to the capital where they were confined and 
subjected to sexual and physical abuse.  While the 
anti-trafficking law was not yet in force, media coverage of 
the trafficking issues raised in this case helped develop 
national awareness of trafficking issues. 
 
¶7. (SBU)  In April 2008, 29 year-old Mozambican and South 
African dual-national Aldina "Diana" dos Santos was arrested 
in South Africa and charged with trafficking over 30 
Mozambican girls between the ages of 14 and 20 to South 
Africa to staff her brothel in upscale Moreleta Park, 
Pretoria, operational since 2005.  In the course of the 
trial, the court heard testimony about how Diana sexually 
exploited and tortured Mozambican young women after having 
trafficked them from Mozambique, many times without 
passports.  Diana's first lawyer attempted to bribe the 
Mozambican whistleblower.  In November, 3 men from Diana's 
criminal ring, which allegedly provided young women for 
brothels throughout South Africa, attempted to kidnap the 
whistleblower from his home in Maputo.  The Diana case drew 
national media attention, and greatly helped to raise 
awareness of trafficking among Mozambicans.  The Ministry of 
Interior cooperated closely with South African authorities to 
develop evidence in this case. 
 
¶8. (SBU)  The Human Rights League (LDH) published a 
comprehensive report in January 2009 substantiating claims of 
regular mutilations occurring in Mozambique of body parts 
forcibly removed from children and adults, either while still 
alive or immediately following violent death.  These forcible 
removals cause either death or serious disability, and the 
organs are trafficked primarily to South Africa, but also in 
Mozambique to support the "muti" witchdoctor or traditional 
healing industry. According to the report, trafficking is 
carried out through third parties who actively seek body 
parts from live victims due to commonly-held beliefs that the 
medicinal value of these parts taken from living humans is 
more powerful.  More than one in five persons interviewed for 
the report experienced first-hand incidents relating directly 
to trafficking of body parts.  Policies and programs to 
combat trafficking in body parts are non-existent, as is 
media coverage of the issue.  Government officials and some 
members of civil society are unwilling to discuss this issue 
due to the stigmas associated with trafficking in human 
parts, and media coverage of the report was minimal. 
 
¶9. (SBU)  Police trafficking seminars for new police officers 
begun in 2006 continued country-wide. The training was 
supported by several NGOs. There is no evidence of government 
involvement in or tolerance of trafficking.  There were no 
cases of government involvement in extradition of persons 
charged with trafficking in other countries.  International 
child sex tourism has not been identified by the government 
as an area of concern. 
 
------------------------- 
PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE 
------------------------- 
 
¶10. (SBU)  Mozambican civil society has, over the past year, 
greatly expanded awareness of trafficking issues, publicizing 
the issue of trafficking and partnering with the GRM to 
develop a viable anti-trafficking strategy in the run-up to 
the 2010 World Cup, which is expected to increase the 
incidence of Mozambicans trafficked to South Africa for 
sexual exploitation.  The government's efforts to protect 
victims of trafficking continued to suffer from a lack of 
resources; government officials regularly relied on NGOs to 
provide shelter, food, counseling, and rehabilitation for 
victims of trafficking.  The government encouraged victims to 
assist in the investigation and prosecution of traffickers, 
and it did not penalize victims for unlawful acts committed 
as a result of their being trafficked. 
 
¶11. (SBU)  In 2008, the Ministry of Justice developed a 
Juvenile Court system specifically designed to handle 
trafficking cases as well as other sensitive juvenile cases. 
 
MAPUTO 00000289  003 OF 003 
 
 
The Ministry of Interior and PRM have expanded the number of 
police stations with personnel trained in issues such as 
trafficking, and provided limited training.  Each police 
station is now expected to include an area dedicated to women 
and children victimized by violence; these offices registered 
complaints and filed reports of trafficking crimes before 
turning victims over to NGOs for care. The PRM has also 
developed a six person anti-trafficking unit that acts on 
trafficking intelligence and attempts to disrupt criminal 
trafficking networks.  An NGO manages a "green line" 
dedicated to persons who want to report crimes against 
children.  An international NGO manages the country's only 
permanent shelter for child trafficking victims, which 
operates on land donated by the Moamba District government. 
 
---------- 
PREVENTION 
---------- 
 
¶12. (SBU)  The government's prevention efforts are improving 
but remain limited.  Most anti-trafficking educational 
workshops were run by NGOs with government participation. 
Some of these conferences and workshops proved very 
successful, particularly in raising public awareness of the 
issue.  Media coverage, including State-owned media, of 
trafficking issues was unprecedented in 2008, particularly in 
the months following the passing of the anti-trafficking law. 
 Articles about the Diana and Turkish cases were widespread, 
and media coverage of anti-trafficking conferences was 
prominent.  In September, journalists also covered a series 
of attempted kidnappings of school children as young as 9 
years of age, and explored the links between these 
kidnappings and attempts to traffic the children to South 
Africa.  IOM partnered with Radio Mocambique to air a radio 
drama on trafficking, in an effort to provide public 
education on the topic.  Law enforcement officials at major 
border crossings communicated and cooperated with NGOs 
monitoring immigration and emigration patterns to screen for 
potential trafficking victims. 
 
---------- 
TIP HEROES 
---------- 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Carlos Manjate director of NGO Rede CAME is 
Post's first nomination for Mozambique's TIP Hero.  More than 
any other member of civil society, Manjate took ownership of 
the anti-trafficking legislation, which was unanimously 
passed by the National Assembly.  His continued efforts to 
publicize the law, help the media understand trafficking 
issues, and develop a strong working relationship between the 
government and civil society are a testament to his 
dedication to TIP issues.  Lurdes Mabunda, Director of the 
Interior Ministry's Department of Women and Children, is 
Post's second nomination for Mozambique's TIP Heroine. 
Mabunda should be commended for her commitment to 
anti-trafficking issues and her involvement in the Ministry's 
strategy development and outreach to civil society. 
 
¶14. (U)  Embassy point of contact on TIP is Etienne LeBailly, 
Political officer. Tel: 258 21 492 797 ext. 3423; fax: 258 21 
490 448; cellular phone 258 82 310 7270.  Principal FSO 
drafter (FS-3) spent 80 hours researching and drafting this 
cable. The Charge (FS-01) spent one hour, the A/DCM (FS-01) 
spent one hour, including the editing/clearing process. 
Pol-Econ Chief (FS-2) spent 10 hours, and LES political 
assistant spent 40. Total hours: 132. 
Chapman