San Tomean opposition demands the resignation of the Minister of Defense and Internal Administration

The Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe/Social Democratic Party (MLSTP/PSD), the largest opposition party in São Tomé, today demanded the resignation of the Minister of Defense and those responsible for the Armed Forces following the prosecution’s accusation against 23 military personnel for the deaths of four men in a barracks assault.

“The MLSTP/PSD urges the President of the Republic to take a firm stance on what is happening in the country and to do everything possible to restore constitutional normalcy and the normal functioning of institutions, starting with the release of the CEEAC report on the events of November 25 and the urgent convening of the Council of State, as a political body to consult the President of the Republic,” reads the statement from MLSTP/PSD political committee, dated Tuesday.

“We also demand that the defense minister, the deputy chief of staff of the FASTP [Armed Forces of São Tomé and Príncipe], and the army commander be immediately dismissed from their positions in defense of the image and credibility of the São Tomé state,” adds the communiqué, read by its vice president, Gabdulo Quaresma.

On Friday, the São Tomé and Príncipe Public Prosecutor’s Office charged 23 military personnel, including former Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Olinto Paquete and the current deputy chief of staff, for the torture and killing of four men in the assault on the Armed Forces barracks in November.

According to the initial order of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of São Tomé and Príncipe, to which Lusa had access, Olinto Paquete – who resigned as chief of staff of the Armed Forces two days after the attack occurred on November 25, 2022 – deputy chief of staff Armindo Rodrigues, and army commander Colonel José Maria Menezes are accused, “in material authorship, by omission, with eventual intention” of 14 crimes of torture and other cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment and four crimes of aggravated murder.

At issue is the attack on the Morro barracks in São Tomé on the night of November 24-25, after which three of the four civilian assailants – who acted with the collaboration of some military personnel – and another man – identified as the orchestrator of the attack and later arrested by the military – were subjected to ill-treatment and ended up dying the same day, on military premises.

For the prosecution, the assault was the first phase of a plan aimed at “subversion of the constitutional order.”

The Public Prosecutor, who is asking for the dismissal of the accused soldiers, believes that those three defendants did nothing to protect the detainees or prevent the assaults and “knew that, with their omissive behavior, they violated functional duties they were subject to as military personnel, arising from the exercise of the functions they performed at the time, namely the duties of protection, authority, zeal and correction” and “acted freely and knowingly.

For the MLSTP, “one cannot admit” that with the formalization of these charges by the MP, “the Government continues to act as if everything was normal, going so far as to promote and give praise to people whose essential role in this whole plot is still not adequately clarified.

“Recognizing the principle of the presumption of innocence, enshrined in our Constitution and laws, we can only question the following: What is the prime minister afraid of?”

“Who is he protecting? Why so many contradictions and inconsistencies during this process? Why don’t you draw the political consequences of these acts and dismiss the defense minister, the deputy chief of staff, and the army commander?”

“Do you realize the damage that this position of yours has caused to the image and external credibility of the San Tomean state?” questioned MLSTP/PSD.

The Minister of Defense and Internal Administration, Jorge Amado, was president and parliamentary leader of the MLSTP/PSD and held the portfolio of National Defense in 2022 during the last year of the Government (2018-2022) led by Jorge Bom Jesus (MLSTP).

The political committee of the MLSTP/PSD considered that the Prime Minister, Patrice Trovoada (Independent Democratic Action, with an absolute majority in parliament), is “sinking in a sea of contradictions and inconsistencies every time he pronounces on this process” of the November 25 events, for defending the presumption of innocence of the accused military, but not having done so concerning those indicted in February for the assault on the barracks and other opposition figures cited in the investigation.

“The Prime Minister is whistling in the wind and talking about the presumption of innocence, going so far as to say that he will not fire anyone until he knows the final result of the trial,” reads the MLSTP/PSD statement.

The party welcomed the publication by the Public Ministry of the “formal indictment of the FASTP elements involved, by action or omission, in the macabre murders and the confirmation of the causes of death, for savage torture and aggravated mistreatment.”

Still, it said it was left “once again with the feeling that the Public Ministry could and should go further because it failed to identify who was the mastermind, or masterminds of these heinous crimes.

“The commissioners do not understand why the cell phones of the main protagonists of this action have not been checked, as was done in the inquiry into the assault on the barracks, to clarify with which politicians these people spoke and at what time these calls were made,” he adds.

“Considering that the two inquiries instituted by the Public Ministry have been concluded, a reason pointed out by the Prime Minister to avoid the debate with the opposition, the political commission oriented the parliamentary bench of the MLSTP/PSD to introduce, still this week, a new request for an urgent debate in the National Assembly, so that these matters can be debated in the house of democracy,” announced the party.

“We hope that this time there will be no `maneuvers’ by the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly to deny once again the realization of this legitimate right of the opposition parties,” said the party, the second most voted in last September’s legislative elections, with 18 seats in the 55-seat parliament.

The MLSTP/PSD appealed to judicial institutions, international organizations, and diplomatic representations installed in the country to pay attention to the situation of the defendant Bruno Afonso “Lucas”, the only one of the four assailants who survived, arrested on remand for his involvement in the barracks assault, “so that measures are taken so that he does not have the same fate as the other four dead victims.

On the other hand, the party of former Prime Minister Jorge Bom Jesus criticized the recent visits of members of the Government to the districts and the Autonomous Region of Príncipe (RAP) to consult the population for the preparation of the General State Budget after four months of governance.

“In a country with serious financial difficulties, to the point that the Government is unable to pay the salaries of civil servants on time, the Prime Minister decides to enter again in an electoral campaign, spending rivers of public money.”

‘Making a committee of more than 30 vehicles and 100 people go to the districts to listen to the same complaints and claims that the populations made in the electoral campaigns and, in some localities, have been making for the last 12 years, of which this gentleman was prime minister twice and governed six years, four years with an absolute majority and solved nothing”, claims the MLSTP/PSD.

“How do you justify going to the PRN, with all the members of the Government and their respective vehicles, with high freight costs by plane and boat, when almost all the members of the Government have already been to the PRN recently, to learn about the sectoral problems that the region faces?”

“Wasn’t this a pretext for the Prime Minister to celebrate his birthday on his sister island, in one of the best hotels in the country, at the expense of São Tomé’s taxpayers?

The largest opposition party also asked for the prime minister’s reaction and possible consequences in the face of accusations by a group of forestry technicians against the minister of defense for alleged illegal felling of trees in violation of an executive order.

With information from Lusa

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