Dialogue will resume without mediators, says Nyusi – AIM report

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Dialogue will resume without mediators, says Nyusi – AIM report

6:31 CAT | 03 Feb 2017

Folha de Maputo / President Nyusi speaking today at a ceremony in Maputo to mark Mozambican Heroes’ Day

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday announced the end of international mediation in the dialogue between the government and the Renamo rebels.

However, speaking at a ceremony in Maputo to mark Mozambican Heroes’ Day, Nyusi held out the possibility that the mediators might return. He urged them to respond positively in the event that they are asked once again to provide their services in the search for an effective peace in Mozambique.

He told the crowd, gathered at Maputo’s Monument to the Mozambican Heroes, that he had sent letters to all the foreign mediators expressing the profound gratitude of the Mozambican people for their contribution to the efforts to attain peace.

“The Mozambican people are truly thankful for your efforts to bring closer the positions of the government and Renamo”, he said.

Nyusi announced that the dialogue between the government and Renamo will shortly resume, and will continue to discuss questions of decentralization and military issue. He said that two specialist groups will be set up to discuss these matters.

“Soon, another phase in the dialogue may begin, and we would like the mediators to remain available, in the event that Mozambique regards their presence as necessary”, he added.

Nyusi revealed he has been in contact with Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, notably over the two specialist groups. He promised the crowd that he will announce in the near future “the subsequent steps resulting from the consensus achieved”.

The international mediating team was coordinated by Italian politician Mario Raffaelli, appointed by the European Union. Other members were Angelo Romano, of the Catholic Sant’Egidio Community (also appointed by the EU), the Vatican’s ambassador in Maputo, Edgar Pena, and the Secretary of the Mozambican Catholic Bishops’ conference, Joao Carlos Nunes, both appointed by the Catholic church, and the South African High Commissioner to Mozambique.

Other members of the team were the former Presidents of Botswana and Tanzania, Quett Masire and Jakaya Kikwete, and a representative of the Faith Foundation, set up by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Months of mediation by this team in the Joint Commission set up by the government and Renamo brought almost no results, and the mediators left Maputo in mid-December without securing a cessation of hostilities. Raffaelli was visibly disappointed when he left, and told reporters the mediators would only return to Mozambique if they received a specific invitation from the Joint Commission.

A truce is now in effect – but it had nothing to do with the mediators. Two phone calls, in late December and early January, between Nyusi and Dhlakama, secured a truce, initially for a week, and then extended for a further two months. So far the truce has held, and since 27 December, when the truce took effect, there have been no reports of any further Renamo ambushes on the roads, or of any clashes between Renamo gunmen and the defence and security forces.

Traffic is once again flowing freely on all the country’s main roads, without any need for convoys under armed escort. Thus phone calls between Nyusi and Dhlakama succeeded where lengthy mediation had failed.

This appeared to vindicate the position always held by the government – namely that Mozambicans are capable of discussing and solving their own disagreements without foreign involvement.

It was always Renamo that insisted on foreign mediation, yet Dhlakama now appears to have dispensed with the mediators.

Dhlakama confirmed on Friday that the two working groups, on decentralization and on military matters, will indeed be set up. Cited by Radio Mozambique, and speaking by phone to a Renamo meeting in the central province of Zambezia, he said that each group would consist of four members, two appointed by the government and two by Renamo.

“As from Monday, we shall form new groups to deal with decentralisation and military questions”, he said. “I can’t say when we shall resume the dialogue. But the groups will be formed”.

He confirmed that at this stage there will be no mediators. “This phase will take place without their presence”, he said. “Their work is over. What remains is the work of the specialists. But at any time we will be able to call on the mediators”.

3 February is a highly symbolic date. It is the anniversary of the 1969 assassination, by the Portuguese secret police, the PIDE, of Eduardo Mondlane, the founder and first president of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo). Mondlane, the country’s first President, Samora Machel, and many others who gave their lives for the country’s liberation lie buried in the crypt at the Maputo Monument.

Source: AIM