He was briefing the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, on Thursday on the explosions and the government's response.
Dai said that 41 people are still hospitalised, and that the government has transferred five critically injured children to South African clinics.
360 children who became lost during the chaos and panic caused by the explosions were located and reunited with their families.
The government had also provided temporary shelter, and food for people whose homes were demolished by the projectiles flung out of the blazing arsenal.
Dai promised that the government would support the reconstruction of houses and of public infrastructure destroyed by the explosions. He gave no estimate as to how much this might cost.
The Minister also pledged that the government would "finalise the destruction of obsolete weaponry", and speed up the transfer of all military arsenals to places distant from centres of population.
Speaking to reporters later Dai repeated that his Ministry believes it will cost 600 million meticais (about 24 million US dollars) to move all the arsenals.
The head of the parliamentary group of the ruling Frelimo Party, Manuel Tome, expressed "deepest recognition, praise and appreciation" for all the health workers, red cross activists, firemen, soldiers, policemen, blood donors and others who had worked to save lives during and after the explosions.
Like Dai, he said nothing about the causes of the disaster, but praised President Armando Guebuza for his speedy decision to set up an independent Commission of Inquiry. This commission consists of three senior judges - the President of the Administrative Tribunal (the body that monitors the legality of public expenditure), Antonio Pale, the presiding judge of the Maputo city court, Augusto Paulino, and the director of the Judicial Training Centre, Bemvinda Levy.
Tome hoped that the Commission would present its results "in the shortest possible space of time, without obeying any dictates other than those of the truth".
"We want this commission to work in an environment without interference, pressure or any attempt at political manipulation", he added. "Although such a climate is not sufficient, it is a necessary condition for impartial work".
Tome urged the government "to continue supporting those affected by the explosions, in line with the real possibilities of our state, so that the lives of citizens may be rapidly normalised".
It was left to Eduardo Namburete, spokesperson for the opposition Renamo-Electoral Union coalition, to strike a critical note, describing the explosion as "a barbaric crime".
What had happened at the Malhazine arsenal "cannot be described as a natural disaster", said Namburete, attacking the initial excuse given by the military which blamed "high temperatures" for the explosions.
"Accusing the heat of causing the explosions is the easiest path for the government to include its own negligence in the list of disasters affecting the country", declared Namburete.
For him the explosions "are a crime for which the government must be held responsible".
He pointed out that the first time explosions occurred at Malhazine was in 1985, when 13 people died and 100 were injured.
In the subsequent 22 years, "little or nothing was done to prevent history from repeating itself. How many more people must die before the government decides to destroy these devices which make the lives of Maputo citizens a constant uncertainty ?" Namburete cited a report made public on Wednesday, under the imprimatur of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, and the South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC). This said that the most likely cause for the explosions was the physical or chemical deterioration of the weaponry in the arsenal.
He also cited the 2001 SADC (Southern African Development Community) protocol on firearms, which took effect in 2004, under which SADC member states undertook to keep a national inventory of weapons owned by state agencies, to improve their capacity for keeping weapons in safe condition, and to destroy superfluous or obsolete weapons. The Malhazine explosions, said Namburete, showed that the Mozambican government had not complied with this SADC protocol.
As for talk of the government providing "possible support" for the victims, Namburete dismissed this as "the hypocrisy of power".
Those who had lost their loved ones, lost their homes, lost all that they owned "are not responsible for the poor state of conservation of artifacts which the government ought to have destroyed", he declared. "The only reasonable and responsible thing the government can do is take responsibility for the incident and compensate the victims".
Here Namburete was on strong legal ground. The Constitution states that "The State is responsible for the damage caused by illegal acts of its agents", and the massive destruction caused by the explosions was certainly a breach of the law, albeit an unintended one.
Renamo also did not regard the commission set up by Guebuza as sufficient, and Namburete called on the Assembly to set up a parliamentary commission of inquiry.
Renamo deputy Luis Boavida called for an immediate parliamentary debate on the tragedy. But Dai, Tome and Namburete had all chosen to use the "period before the order of the day" for their speeches, a period of up to an hour in which the government and deputies may speak on any matter not covered by that day's parliamentary agenda. Under the Assembly's standing orders, speeches made in this period are not subject to debate.
SOURCE: AIM
