Dhlakama says guerrillas disarmament depends on integration into FADM and PRM

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Dhlakama says guerrillas disarmament depends on integration into FADM and PRM

5:49 CAT | 17 May 2017

Folha de Maputo (File photo)

The disarmament of Renamo, Mozambique’s largest opposition party, depends on the incorporation of its guerrillas into the Mozambican Defence Forces (FADM) and the Republic of Mozambique Police (PRM), leader Afonso Dhlakama recently announced in Nampula.

Renamo’s laying down of arms is one of the topics on the table in the ongoing dialogue between the party and the government.

Speaking via teleconference to hundreds Renamo members in the country’s largest electoral constituency, Dhlakama said he did not yet feel safe enough to make a public appearance due to the assassination attempts on him in Manica and Sofala in 2016.

The Renamo leader also accused the regime of having had some members and sympathisers of opposition parties assassinated, as well as others who disagreed with the ruling party.

“After we finally sign the truce agreement and reintegrate our armed men into the ranks of the FADM and the PRM,” everything would be settled, Dhlakama said.

“I will not need security, because we will have a unitary police force that defends the interests of the Mozambican people. Until that happens, I will continue to rely on my own security guards, just as is the case with all the private security companies scattered throughout Mozambique,” he said.

The other issue being debated concerns the adoption of a law providing for elected provincial governors in the context of the decentralisation and de-concentration of power in the country.

“I do not wish there to be a return to war, because it slows investments and innocent people die. But everything depends on the ongoing negotiations. We want the process to be swift and that before the end of the year the instruments under discussion will be approved so that we can move to the other steps,” Dhlakama added.

By Júlio Paulino

Source: A Verdade