On Friday, October 7: Dhlakama says he is confident of peace by November – Mozambique

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

On Friday, October 7: Dhlakama says he is confident of peace by November – Mozambique

2:39 CAT | 10 Oct 2016

Getty / Jinty Jackson (File photo) / Renamo's Afonso Dhlakama in a photo from March 10 2013

Renamo president Afonso Dhlakama expressed confidence on Friday (October 7) that negotiations to end the political and military crisis will secure peace by the end of November.

“I promise the people that peace will be restored, perhaps within months. I do not want to believe that we will go into the Christmas holidays still at war. I believe that by the end of November, or perhaps the middle, the people of Mozambique will have peace,” the leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) told Lusa news agency in a telephone statement.

In the week that marked the 24th anniversary of the signing on 4 October 1992 of the agreement that ended 16 years of civil war, Dhlakama reiterated that the so-called Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in Rome has been systematically violated by Frelimo (Mozambique Liberation Front), the ruling party since 1975.

“Unfortunately, what we agreed in Rome was violated by Frelimo, because the multi-party system is not working properly. We have had several fraudulent elections. Since 1994 to the last elections in 2014, there has been vote-rigging in the presidential, legislative and even local government elections,” Dhlakama said.

In addition, the leader of Renamo alleges that there is a social exclusion policy. “If you are not a member of Frelimo, you are nothing, you are considered a foreigner. There are kidnappings, there are abductions, there are executions, there is more poverty. The General Peace Agreement has failed completely.”

20 Jahre Frieden in Mosambik (picture-alliance/dpa) — Joaquim Chissano and Afonso Dhlakama at the signing of the General Peace Agreement (Rome 1992)

Despite the alleged failure of the 24-year agreement, Dhlakama believes that the ongoing negotiations, involving international mediation, will have a positive result.

But despite his optimism, Dhlakama has not accepted the ceasefire proposed by the international mediators in the ongoing negotiations. For the leader of the opposition, there will only be a truce when a peace agreement with Frelimo is signed.

“If there is war, it is because there is some reason for it. First, we find a solution to the problem, then we cease fire, at once and forever. Now if we ceased fire today on emotional grounds and a month later we resumed, we would be playing with people’s expectations.”

Dhlakama has refused to meet Filipe Nyusi at this stage of the negotiations.

“No meeting will take place unless it is to sign an agreement, as happened with Chissano when I met him in Rome in 1992,” Dhlakama said, pointing out that each party has representatives fully mandated to negotiate on behalf of their leaders.

Mosambik Friedensverhandlungen in Maputo (DW/L. Matias) — International mediators in the peace talks between the Government of Mozambique and Renamo (09/12/2016)

Dhlakama argues that it is in fact the ongoing conflict that is allowing negotiations to advance. “Frelimo accepts some things because it is losing on the ground. If we accept a ceasefire now without an agreement with Frelimo, negotiations might take two to four years, because they are in power now and there would no longer be any discomfort for them.”

Dhlakama also warned the ruling party, which this weekend convened a special meeting of its central committee, that “Now is not the time for propaganda”.

“The people are suffering. If there is war, it is because Frelimo has been provoking Renamo and, let us face it, the country is not Renamo, the country is the people. It is not Guebuza’s, Chissano’s, nor Dhlakama’s nor Nyusi’s. We are leaders. Each one should be for the best interests of the people.”

Source: Deutsche Welle