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Govt slammed on organ scandal
03/04/2004 10:09 - (SA)
Lisbon - The leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, accused the government of the southern African nation of covering-up the existence of a human organ trafficking network in an interview published on Friday.
"We must say there is an international network operating in Nampula, linked to the authorities, which traffics human organs - and the government is hiding it," Afonso Dhlakama told Portuguese weekly newspaper O Independente.
"The truth is that children are being kidnapped and children are being left without their organs," he added.
The alleged organ trafficking was first brought to light in 2001 by missionary nuns in the northern province of Nampula who said they had gathered evidence from would-be victims of the network who had managed to escape.
The nuns also say they have photographs of dead children with missing organs.
But last month the attorney-general's office in the former Portuguese colony said it had found no evidence of organ trafficking after it ordered 14 bodies exhumed in Nampula.
The missionaries however say the investigation was not rigorous and they maintain the organ trafficking is continuing.
A Mozambican woman and her two-year-old son were found murdered in Nampula province, with the woman's genitals removed, Mozambique's state-run Noticias reported on Tuesday, renewing fears over the existence of an organ trafficking network in the region.
Body parts, including sexual organs, are commonly used in many parts of Mozambique in traditional rituals believed to bring good fortune and wealth.
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