Mozambique: Report accuses private military contractors of taking part in the killing of civilians; includes company comments
In a report issued on Tuesday, by Amnesty International. Findings accused the government, insurgents and a South African private military company of war crimes against civilians, including killings, dismemberment, torture and abductions. In its report, titled ‘What I Saw Is Death’: War Crimes in Mozambique’s Forgotten Cape’, Amnesty said it had interviewed 79 internally displaced people between September and January, and reviewed satellite imagery, photographs, medical records and ballistics information. Reuters was not independently able to verify the material described in the report. The report accused Dyck Advisory Group staff of opening fire indiscriminately on civilians while pursuing suspected fighters. The South African private military firm said it will hire outside lawyers to look into its activities in Mozambique. Lionel Dyck, the founder of the company, told Reuters: “We take these allegations very seriously and we are going to put an independent legal team in there shortly to do a board of inquiry and look at what we are doing.” He declined to give further details of the group’s mission in Mozambique.