Mozambique: President Nyusi dismisses ambassadors
Photo: Jornal Domingo
The major priority for Mozambique is to attain effective peace, declared President Filipe Nyusi on Friday.
He was speaking in the central city of Beira, at commemorations of Victory Day, the 44th anniversary of the agreement on Mozambican independence, signed in Lusaka on 7 September 1974 between the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) and the Portuguese government. The Beira commemorations coincided with the Fifth National Festival of Veterans.
Nyusi said that the talks on a lasting peace are going through a crucial and complex moment with attentions centred on the demobilisation and disarming of the militia of the rebel movement Renamo, and the integration of its members into the armed forces and police or back into society.
“The late leader of Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama, wanted the real integration of his men”, said Nyusi, as he urged Mozambicans to commit themselves to dialogue, concord and reconciliation and to advance in unity in rebuilding the country’s economic fabric.
The National Veterans’ Festival, he said, is a moment of reflection among those who made the country’s independence. The agreement signed in Lusaka was the firmest ever reached in Mozambican history, he added, since it had never been violated.
He praised the courage of “the young fighters who dared defeat the colonial war machine, which was considered invincible”, and noted that the liberation struggles waged in Portugal’s African colonies had led to the overthrow of the fascist regime in Portugal itself in the coup of 25 April 1974.
“We shall continue to empower tolerance and abandon selfishness, by placing national interests above personal interests”, declared the President.
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He pointed to the signs of an economic recovery, as Mozambicans worked in the areas which the government had defined as priorities. The annual growth rate had edged up from 3.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year to 3.4 per cent in the second quarter.
“This was possible thanks to the commitment of Mozambicans to production together with the monetary policy measures taken by the Bank of Mozambique”, declared Nyusi.
The general secretary of the Association of Veterans of the National Liberation Struggle (ACLLN), Fernando Faustino, encouraged Nyusi to continue his efforts to reach a definitive peace.
He urged those armed members of the Renamo militia “who are still in the bush to accept the orders of the Commander-in-Chief (Nyusi) and go home to join their families so that they can contribute to development through increased production and productivity”.
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