DDR: Renamo has no hidden weapons, knows nothing about promised European Union money – Carta

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DDR: Renamo has no hidden weapons, knows nothing about promised European Union money – Carta

2:57 CAT | 19 Nov 2020

Screen grab: IMD

Domingos Gundana, member of the Renamo Political Commission and Deputy National Head of Mobilisation, guarantees that the armed wing of the largest opposition party has no hidden weapons and that all war material is being handed over to the authorities within the framework of the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) process underway in the country.

The promise was given in Maputo on Tuesday during the debate on the 30 years of multiparty democracy in Mozambique organised by the Institute for Multiparty Democracy (IMD) in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs (MJACR), whose key speaker was the President of Renamo, Ossufo Momade.

Gundana, who was in the audience accompanying his leader, intervened in the debate after academic Hilário Chacate asked whether Renamo was delivering up all weapons in its possession. Citing United Nations data, Chacate said that Renamo had six million weapons in 1992, but had only reportedly handed over 190,000.

“There is one thing that worried me about brother Chacate. He spoke of the number of weapons Renamo had at the time of the 1992 [Peace] Agreement. He spoke of six million weapons. It is incredible to hear that. I have been a brigadier since 1982, and I participated in the Reintegration Commission, after the General Peace Agreement. (…) I know what we had and I do not recognise these figures. We would like you to help us so that we do not continue to be accused of being people who hide weapons,” Gundana replied.

“The DDR belongs to all of us,” Gundana went on. “If we don’t have reconciliation, the reintegration of the combatants will be deficient and their reintegration into the community as well.” “It is necessary that leaders, especially those in power, educate their bases in how to live with others,” he said.

Gundana also addressed the issue of the €60 million promised by the European Union at the time of the signing of the Maputo Definitive Peace Agreement on August 6, 2019, to finance the implementation of the DDR.

“Mozambique does not know,” he said. “I’m at the DDR and I don’t know anything. There was a promise on the day the Agreement was signed, but if the money arrived, I don’t know about it. We, as Renamo, are not part of the fund’s management. We only have human resources, who must return home,” he said.

By Omardine Omar

Source: Carta de Moçambique / IMD