Mozambique: Numerous pre-marked ballots in favour of Frelimo identified - Carta
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The president of the Mozambican Democratic Movement and mayor of Beira, Daviz Simango, has called for the creation of a truth commission in Mozambique to consolidate the reconciliation process.
“What the country in fact needs to create a definitive reconciliation among Mozambicans is a truth commission,” Daviz Simango said in an interview with Lusa news agency, arguing that “those who have to take the initiative are the authorities in the government”.
“Those who are not in power do not have the capacity,” Simango says. “The people with the flexibility to create and provide conditions for a swift understanding among Mozambicans are those in power. The ones who are not in power do not.”
Such was idea was expressed after the death of the president of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Afonso Dhlakama in the Gorongosa mountains on May 3. The peace that was already being built by the opposition leader with the Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi, will prevail, Simango says. Still, he believes there have been mistakes on all sides in the 16 years of Mozambican civil war, open wounds that the commission could help heal.
Without going into details, the Beira mayor admits that there were “things that should not have been done”, because “where there is war, there are deaths, there is violence”. A truth commission will serve “to wash the dirty hands and start a new era”, he says.
Simango believes, however, that the governments of the Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo), the ruling party, have been more interested in investing in repression than in education or health. Part of the US$2 billion hidden state debt discovered in 2016 would have served this purpose, according to an international audit. “It is investing in repression that creates all these conflicts,” Simango says.
Suspicions of electoral fraud are another issue threatening stability and will persist until a review of electoral bodies gives them credibility, he adds. A truth and reconciliation commission would go to the heart of a puzzle and consolidate definitive peace.
Simango asks for more reassurance for Renamo men
The Beira mayor believes that there will never be war again, even though Renamo’s armed wing remains in the woods. “I know the Renamo people, and they will fulfil [Dhlakama’s] desire and hold to the ceasefire.”
For Simango, “one of the ways to honour him is to fulfil the efforts he made” for peace in the country. “Conditions for conflict do not exist,” he says.
Renamo, as a party, will be able to move forward, with maturity, says the mayor, hoping that Frelimo, in power since independence, is up to the occasion. “This process will be a long, winding one. It will require a lot of effort. The important thing is that the ruling party does not abuse military power” to justify any deviation from the agreements reached in recent months.
The cease-fire has lasted from the end of 2016 and Dhlakama and the Mozambican president, Filipe Nyusi, have been strengthening relations and consensus in terms of administrative decentralisation and the future of the Renamo guerrillas.
“The ruling party must be more open, creating more reassurance and confidence so that those still in the woods understand that our struggle cannot continue as an armed conflict. Our only weapon is the voter card,” Simango says.
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