Frelimo asks the people of Nhamatanda to “forgive Renamo” – report

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Frelimo asks the people of Nhamatanda to “forgive Renamo” – report

1:34 CAT | 20 Sep 2018

Photos: Frelimo Moçambique

Frelimo’s secretary general Roque Silva has asked the people of Nhamatanda to forgive the armed wing of Renamo, saying that it was necessary to learn to live with members of the main opposition party and “make room for their social reintegration.”

Quoted by the daily newspaper Notícias, Silva says that their pardon will pave the way for disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of the main opposition party’s armed wing within the framework of the agreements reached during the negotiations between the government and Renamo.

The Frelimo secretary general was speaking on Tuesday at a popular rally in Nhamatanda, Sofala province, a region considered a Renamo bastion.

Roque Silva said that “it is not easy to forget the instability”, but it was essential for Mozambicans to try to do so, because the peace process was irreversible.

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Filipe Nyusi and Renamo interim coordinator Ossufo Momade signed a memorandum of understanding on the demilitarisation and integration of the main opposition party forces into the army and police, a process that has already begun.

The details of the document are not yet public, but the head of state said that it was a “decisive” instrument in the peace negotiations begun with the late Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama, who died from ill-health on May 3 of this year.

In addition to the disarmament and integration of the men of the armed wing of Mozambique’s largest opposition party in the Armed Forces, the negotiating agenda between the two sides involved the decentralisation of power, a point that was accomplished by the revision of the constitution in July.

In 2015 and 2016, Mozambique saw military clashes between government forces and the armed wing of Renamo, which refused to recognise the 2014 election results, accusing the ruling party Frelimo of fraud in the ballot.

Source: Lusa