Mozambique: Foreign Minister travels to Uganda for Non-Aligned Movement and G77+China Summits
File photo: Lusa
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced on Thursday that the demilitarisation of the former rebel movement Renamo will begin on Saturday, under the memorandum of understanding signed earlier this year between the government and Renamo.
Nyusi was speaking on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the General Peace Agreement, signed on 4 October 1992 in Rome by the then President, Joaquim Chissano and the late leader of Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama.
After laying a wreath at Maputo’s Monument to the Mozambican Heroes, Nyusi said he was pleased to announce that on Saturday “we shall effectively begin the demilitarisation, demobilisation and reintegration of the residual forces of Renamo”.
This would be possible, he said, because by then all the foreign experts requested by Mozambique would be in the country. The experts come from Tanzania, Zimbabwe, the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Ireland and India, and will be coordinated by Argentinian general Javier Antonio Perez Aquino, who supervised the disarmament of the guerrillas of FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces) in Colombia.
Nyusi also invited all of Mozambican society to support the peace efforts. “I invite all Mozambicans, our friends and cooperation partners to unite with us, and vigorously work to eradicate everything that stands against peace among us”, he said.
But the message from the Interim Coordinator of the Renamo Political Commission, Ossufo Momade, on the anniversary of the 1992 peace accord could not have been more different.
Although he said that Renamo remains committed to peace, Momade also threatened to use Renamo’s armed men in the current municipal election campaign.
In a speech made at the Renamo military headquarters at Satunjira, in the central district of Gorongosa, he claimed that all previous Mozambican elections have been fraudulent, and that the current campaign is characterised by violence, particularly against Renamo members. He cited the incident in the western city of Tete on 27 September, when a local official of the ruling Frelimo Party shot a Renamo member in the thigh, and two cases of harassment of Renamo in the southern city of Xai-Xai. He threatened that Renamo could send its militia members (whom he called “rangers”) to defend Renamo election candidates.
But he also claimed that Frelimo had drawn up a plan to steal the elections, and that the Renamo “rangers” could intervene to stop it.
This plan involved bussing in people from outside the municipalities to vote en masse for Frelimo. These people would not only come from Mozambique but also from Zimbabwe and South Africa.
In past elections, Renamo has regularly made claims that Frelimo is bringing in large numbers of foreigners to vote for it, but no foreigner has ever been caught casting a ballot at a Mozambican polling station.
As for bringing in Mozambicans from outside the municipal area, this claim was made insistently during the campaign for the mayoral by-election in the northern city of Nampula earlier this year. On the eve of the second round of that election, in March, the then Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama claimed that Frelimo was bussing in people not only from other districts in Nampula province, but from as far away as Maputo.
These claims were suddenly dropped when the Nampula result was announced. For the Renamo candidate, Paulo Vahanle, won convincingly with 58 per cent of the vote.
Last week Renamo claimed it already has armed men in the municipality of Marromeu, on the south bank of the Zambezi. The Renamo political delegate in Marromeu, Zitano Caitano, claimed that government defence and security forces had taken up positions in Marromeu to intimidate voters.
“We have also mobilised our forces and men are here from Satunjira. We have armed men here, and if we see any armed action, we will respond,” Caitano said.
But there has been no confirmation of this claim. As for the Mozambican police and military, The Marromeu district police commander, Lacerda Rafael, said “these are forest and border guards to control the thefts of forest resources which have increased here, and they are not present for political reasons.”
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.