Mozambique: Frelimo wants last Renamo guerillas disarmed before local elections

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Mozambique: Frelimo wants last Renamo guerillas disarmed before local elections

7:10 CAT | 31 May 2023

FILE - "We want this process to take place before the municipal elections, because, often, the residual armed Renamo men are used as an assault vehicle for the elections", said Sérgio Pantie, head parliamentary bench of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), party in power, in the Assembly of the Republic. [File photo: Lusa]

FRelimo, the party in power in Mozambique, defended today that the disarmament of the armed wing of Renamo, opposition party, should end before the October municipal elections, so that the guerrillas are not “used” as an instrument of pressure in the ballot.

“We want this process to take place before the municipal elections, because, often, the residual armed Renamo men are used as an assault vehicle for the elections”, said Sérgio Pantie, head parliamentary bench of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), party in power, in the Assembly of the Republic.

Pantie was speaking during the closing speech of the seventh session of the ninth legislature of parliament.

In this sense, he signaled the commitment of the President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, and the leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Ossufo Momade, to work towards the closure of the last base of the armed wing of the movement in June.

“We are now pleased that the process of Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration [DDR] of Renamo guerrillas is moving towards its end, with the closure of its last base in Gorongosa, in Sofala province, in June next”, highlighted the head of the Frelimo parliamentary group.

In turn, the leader of the Renamo bench, Viana Magalhães, defended that the end of the DDR process should not be used to violate democratic rules in Mozambique.

“Signing several peace agreements is not enough, when the genesis of the problems remains inert. The DDR should not be used as a way to silence Mozambicans, to trample on the essence of democracy”, emphasized Magalhães.

The head of the parliamentary bench of the main opposition party alluded to an apparent risk of the Government using the disarmament of Renamo’s armed wing for political repression of the opposition and of voices critical of the country’s administration.

Mozambique has municipal elections on October 11.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said on the 23rd at the United Nations Security Council in New York that the last base of Renamo’s armed wing should close in June, later starting payment of pensions to former guerrillas.

“The final phase of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration could end next June with the closure of the last Renamo base”, he said.

The DDR is part of the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed in 2019 by the Mozambican Government and Renamo.

Source: Lusa