Frelimo deputies call on outlawing Renamo

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Frelimo deputies call on outlawing Renamo

7:54 CAT | 04 Mar 2016

Parliamentary deputies from Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo Party on Thursday urged the Attorney-General’s Office to investigate crimes committed by Renamo, and suggested that it could be outlawed as a political party.

“This is the only case in the world where there is a party which is in parliament and at the same time waging war in the bush”, said Frelimo spokesperson Edmundo-Galiza Matos Junior, speaking in the second day of a debate with the government on the politico-military tensions in the country.

“It is time for the Attorney-General to analyse seriously the legality of Renamo in the light of the Constitution and the Penal Code, which were passed here with Renamo voting in favour”, he declared.

“Is Renamo a political party or a group of armed men who loot the goods of the people – in short armed bandits?”, asked Lucinda Malema, while Lutse Rumeia said “Renamo should have been banned a long time ago. It’s no more than a gang of terrorists and bandits”.

Emdio Xavier added a demand that the government should suspend all payments to Renamo. AS a parliamentary party, Renamo receives a monthly state subsidy in proportion to the number of seats it holds. Xavier protested that this money “is just used to lubricate the war machine”.

Repeatedly, Frelimo deputies urged Renamo to surrender its guns and complete its transition from a military force to a political party. But now a second possibility – that of outlawing Renamo – was seriously raised.

Under Mozambican legislation, a political party that uses armed force in an attempt to change the political and social order can indeed be banned. But whether the traditionally cautious Attorney-General’s Office is willing to take such a dramatic step is open to doubt.

Renamo’s response was to blame the government for the current sporadic violence, claiming that the government was carrying out a campaign of kidnap and murder against Renamo members. It also made the standard Renamo claim that all elections held in Mozambique have been fraudulent. “The great problem in Mozambique is that Frelimo does not accept democracy”, claimed Renamo deputy Jose Manteigas. “Where in the Constitution does it state that elections can be won by stealing votes?”

Galiza-Matos retorted that when, in February 2014, the electoral laws were rewritten to give Renamo everything it demanded, including the insertion of political party nominees at all levels of the electoral machinery, Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama claimed that the law was proof against fraud. Only after it became clear that Renamo had lost did he change his mind, and write the 2014 elections off as fraudulent.

Galiza-Matos pointed out that Renamo had increased its vote and number of deputies in parliament, and Frelimo had accepted that – just as Frelimo had accepted losing control of major cities (Beira, Nampula and Quelimane) to the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) in municipal elections.

“We recognized Renamo and MDM victories”, he said. “Apparently it’s only fraud when Frelimo wins”.

MDM deputy Venancio Mondlane attacked both Frelimo and Renamo, and demanded an end to the idea of “dividing Mozambique into 50 per cent for some and 50 per cent for others, as if it were a wedding cake and the presents as mortars, machine-guns, AK-47s, grenades and armoured cars”.

He said the MDM “demands the immediate end of the war waged against the people, and the establishment of a National Peace Pact, with the inclusion of all the live forces in the country”. Mondlane also wanted to see conditions established for the direct election of provincial governors, rather than their appointment by the President of the Republic – that, however, would require a constitutional amendment.

Source: AIM