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NewsTranscript
00:00 [Music]
00:21 My name is Timothy Christel Roberts, my nickname Robbie.
00:24 I'm the Ops Manager and General Manager for Umbrella Pharma Hotel.
00:29 On the 24th, I was managing it as a normal day.
00:35 And at 2.10pm, 10, 14, 15, I got a call that people,
00:41 there's a commotion happening at north, northwest of Parma town,
00:45 at the quarry, that there are shouting and people being abducted.
00:49 And I was called to ask if I knew anything about it.
00:51 I had no knowledge of it.
00:53 And I said, give me time, I would call around and find out if WBHO or TOTO
01:00 or any of the other motels or camps have heard about it,
01:03 so we can take appropriate action.
01:06 At half past, they called me again and told me that the commotion is getting louder
01:10 at half past two and that it's coming nearer towards where their location is.
01:14 And I told them, well, pack up and come back to Umbrella,
01:18 because they were staying here.
01:20 I said, get your guests back here and from there we can plan alternatively
01:23 to get them out of Umbrella or Parma if it's required.
01:30 At about 25 to 3 to 22.3pm, people just started streaming in.
01:37 That's when the physically more, the attack became more intensified in town
01:41 on the northwestern side, where they were then pushing, coming in towards town.
01:46 And the people were just streaming in.
01:49 At about 10 past three, quarter past three, I had to make a decision.
01:52 This place was full of people.
01:54 I did not have the resources, did not have the ability,
01:58 and did not have the security to maintain such a large crowd of people,
02:02 where I had to make a decision of stopping people from coming in vehicles
02:07 and the gates and everything, because there was people, children everywhere,
02:10 trying to look for safe haven at Umbrella.
02:15 So I closed everything up and did an assessment with the assistance of two gentlemen,
02:20 that we find out how many people were here, who were women and children,
02:24 and who are not, none guests that was in there at the moment.
02:27 So a lot of companies ran in there with their staff,
02:30 where they felt that they could be saved by helicopters or any means like that.
02:36 But we had limited resources.
02:39 We only had a minimal security that could provide and give them assistance.
02:45 And we were hoping, and we were hoping for sure,
02:48 that we'd get a military to help us, or force to help us,
02:52 and also that the helicopters, because we have quite an aviation section,
02:56 that it could help us and fly the people out.
02:58 So that's basically how the whole occurrence occurred,
03:02 that so many people ended up in Umbrella.
03:05 Everybody ran here, because it was like a marker point for everybody to come to.
03:09 Because firstly, we knew the airstrip, secondly we had aviation section,
03:13 and we had a good boundary out the wall that gave protection to everybody.
03:17 But we were totally surrounded.
03:20 Where do we go to?
03:22 So everybody knows what happened on the 24th, the 25th and the 26th,
03:26 until everybody departed here on a convoy, and I left on a helicopter from here.
03:31 Everybody in this establishment had the ability to hire a helicopter from Pemba.
03:37 It was there.
03:39 All they had to do was the companies had to pay the money to fly the helicopters
03:43 to come pick the people up.
03:45 I cannot make a decision, because it was a lot of money to buy a helicopter to fly people.
03:49 But I phoned embassies, we phoned the UN, we phoned everybody,
03:53 we phoned the governor, he was trying, working hard to help the people,
03:57 the military tried to help, but because of the amount of force
04:00 and the way they surrounded, it was very difficult for everybody to come
04:03 and give us assistance at that stage.
04:05 And that's why the decision was made for us rather to leave,
04:08 to try to go alternatively, safe means, or getaway means,
04:12 because the situation was not in favor of the people staying here,
04:16 because we would have been killed here.
04:18 The best rather get out of here, because this became a target point for them to be,
04:24 because everybody knew, and they knew their government people was here too,
04:28 and that's what they were looking for.
04:30 But at that time the government people had already flown out,
04:32 they had flown out to Afungi already, on the first flight.
04:36 The administrator, his assistants, and his daughter all flew out on the first flight.
04:44 The government Mozambican people flew out on the first flight.
04:49 No white people flew out, as was stated.
04:52 The second flight was a pregnant lady from Parma,
04:57 a lady that just had a miscarriage, she was on a flight.
05:01 The bank manager from Parma, and then I put in two COE members from the company.
05:07 And it was four flights, and at four flights I flew out seven international people,
05:13 and the rest were all Mozambican nationals of different capacities.
05:17 Bank managers, WFP people that was here, because they had the account of the people here,
05:22 so they knew exactly the people in Parma.
05:24 Those computers from WFP members, they were telling them exactly who was here,
05:28 if someone was lost or someone was killed.
05:31 So it's all information.
05:33 Nobody physically died in Amarillo.
05:48 No one.
05:50 No one got injured inside Amarillo.
05:52 Everybody left from this establishment, they got injured or got killed outside the boundary walls of Amarillo,
06:02 where they have tried to make an escape to the beach.
06:06 Where they tried to make an escape to the beach is that where people sadly got killed and injured.
06:14 When people came in, there was one person here.
06:17 One person had ran back from the attack, and he was under our engineering section,
06:21 under the container, and he saw the people come in, they left the next morning,
06:26 and he came out, got dressed in Amarillo clothes, and they rescued him in this compound.
06:32 The helicopters, DAWG helicopters saw him and picked him up and took him to Al Fungi.
06:36 But no one physically in this boundary walls got killed.
06:40 And no one of our staff got killed inside this establishment.
06:45 I came out, I was not here.
06:47 I left on the 26th, like many other people left this establishment and other areas.
06:53 If people were killed or people were injured or bodies were left behind,
06:58 it could have been from other agencies or from others, but no one has reported it.
07:03 No one has shown that they've lost so many people.
07:07 I don't know what has the government come up with, a state that rated to the population there.
07:12 Because most of them ran in the bush.
07:14 But no one is in here. No one is in other areas of this place.
07:18 So I cannot tell you.
07:21 But at this stage, it's unknown to us about shoes, about bodies, about--we're not sure about it.
07:26 We cannot tell you that.
07:28 Because I took you around, and you could not establish where this was stable people saying that it occurred.
07:34 When people are traumatized and people are exposed to what occurred,
07:39 people would like to remember what they want to see and what they heard or what they were exposed to experience.
07:46 So it's really difficult for each person to have a straight version.
07:50 I always say there's three versions in the story.
07:53 It's my version, another person's version, and a true version.
07:58 A lot of times the truth will come out what actually occurred and how it occurred.
08:02 And in due time, everybody will be able to put their mind together and say, "No, this is what actually occurred."
08:08 Everything should be on black and white. On my phone, I've got everything, all my conversations.
08:13 I didn't take a phone call. I said, "Send me a message."
08:16 With the message, it's my security afterwards to say, "This is what happened, how it happened. Read it here."
08:23 Okay, that was one of our guests that stayed here, Mr. Phil Mauer.
08:27 That when he left in a convoy, he got killed outside on the road on his escape route towards safety.
08:36 He got killed.
08:37 Only those people that got killed or died was one of us with our staff.
08:44 Other people were associated to other companies or people of international people that died.
08:50 But that occurred because of the ambushes they encountered while they escaped route towards the beach to get the boat taken back to safety.
08:58 I know of five people that got killed.
09:01 There might be more, but it can be also from a local population that got killed.
09:06 I cannot give you a true version how many people were killed.
09:08 But I can tell you of the people that left this establishment for safety, or five people.
09:14 Okay, five.
09:15 That's all I know about.
09:17 When there's a conflict or anything, a lot of things do occur.
09:22 Yes, I cannot speak for myself, but there's many other companies established within Palma that also had big losses.
09:29 Not only losses in their equipment or their assets, but also had staff loss due to the conflict.
09:39 So there's a lot of losses.
09:40 So we also carried a lot of loss.
09:42 Therefore, we felt, we came here in late November, did an assessment of the establishment to see what the feasibility is to come back and re-establish this place.
09:55 In support, firstly, of the project.
09:59 Number two, for the people of Palma.
10:02 Number three, to give the people assurance that the government and the forces here are giving the people the protection and the safety assurance that they can come back and re-establish themselves and start this project up and going to the benefit of everyone.
10:16 I cannot tell you how much money, but I can tell you lots of money.
10:19 Just remember, there's an establishment that everything that you require within the hotel establishment like in Maputo, we lost everything.
10:29 Can you relate that to money? Maybe you can.
10:33 You can relate it to sorrow. You can relate it to everything.
10:37 But money cannot bring another person back.
10:42 But we can put that money, we can bring something again to establish.
10:46 It might not be the same again. It will take time.
10:49 But we've got the basics to get it going, take ourselves forward and say, we are here.
10:56 Come and enjoy our hospitality.
10:59 I can't again, it's difficult because we're not tourism.
11:04 We work for the tourism, with the Minister of Tourism and that, but we cater for contractors, people that come in.
11:10 So today I might have two people.
11:12 Next month I might have ten people.
11:14 But I've got nearly a hundred staff here that I supported, that I paid.
11:20 Sometimes my staff overrides my cost of my clients.
11:24 But that's what at the end of the day, what I think is.
11:27 It wasn't about making a profit, it's providing a service and also giving support to the community.
11:33 And that's why we try and employ people from here to support the community and to make the community grow.
11:40 That's what I think.
11:41 With the SADC forces, or SADC forces, not here, but with the Rwandan forces here,
11:46 you can see that people have more confidence and assurance.
11:49 But just remember, don't forget about the Mozambican police, forget the Mozambican military.
11:53 They're also here. They work in conjunction with the Rwandan forces.
11:58 So yes, there's a change.
12:00 Three forces are better than one.
12:02 So I would say everybody's working together to keep that peace, tranquility, people to give them assurance.
12:08 Please come back. We are safe, secure in your area.
12:11 The Rwandan forces are here, but we're also here.
12:13 So everybody's working together for the safety and safe haven environment for everybody here.
12:19 So it's not only one force, it's many other forces included here today.
12:23 (upbeat music)
12:25 (bubble popping)