It takes “a lot of naivety” to believe the Military Junta will die “a natural death” – Raul Domingos

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It takes “a lot of naivety” to believe the Military Junta will die “a natural death” – Raul Domingos

7:39 CAT | 25 May 2021

File photo: O País

Councillor of State Raul Domingos has warned that believing the Renamo Military Junta would die “a natural death” because of defections by influential figures required “a lot of naivety”, saying a political settlement is necessary.

“I look at this as a vision of great naivety, because that is not how things happen,” the councillor said in an interview with Lusa.

Raul Domingos was appointed State Councillor by President Filipe Nyusi in April. He was, for many years, considered Number Two in the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), the country’s main opposition party, but was expelled from the organisation following the 1999 general elections.

Domingos warned that waiting for the Junta Militar, a Renamo splinter group which opposes the compacts between Renamo and the government, to end naturally with a wave of defections, would be a “time bomb”, because it fails to address the “seed” of the disunity nurtured by the group.

“We cannot think about the idea of a natural death. There is no such thing. We have to work towards an understanding,” Domingos said.

Betting on a solution based on the weakening of the junta through defections would be the same as a surrender, and this formula does not address the root of the problem, he emphasised.

“There is a seed there that must be treated, [just like] grafting the seed of an orange tree onto a lemon tree,” Domingos explained.

Even if the demands of the Military Junta remain unclear, some points raised by the group must be analysed and dealt with, so that they do not becomes the seed of new conflicts in the future.

“It is necessary to take those people [from the Military Junta], evaluate their claims and seek a middle ground so that they get out of there [the woods] not as a surrendering force, but as a force with whom an understanding has been reached,” Domingos insisted.

The lack of a final political solution, he continued, would create a climate of uncertainty that could fuel violence of unknown origin, such as the most recent examples in Tete province, in the centre of the country.

After his expulsion from Renamo, Raul Domingos founded the Party for Peace, Democracy and Development (PDD), running in general elections but never managing to elect deputies to the Assembly of the Republic.

Domingos was expelled from the main opposition party following disagreements with the late party leader Afonso Dhlakama over Renamo’s refusal to accept defeat in the 1999 general elections.

The Military Junta contests the Peace and National Reconciliation Agreement signed between the government and Renamo in August, 2019, accusing party leader Ossufo Momade of having betrayed the ideals of his predecessor, Afonso Dhlakama, by making commitments to the executive detrimental to the interests of the organization.

The group, led by Mariano Nhongo, is blamed by the authorities for armed attacks that have already killed at least 30 people since 2019 on roads and villages in the provinces of Manica and Sofala, central Mozambique.

The junta has recently suffered the desertion of influential members such as André Matsangaíssa Júnior, a nephew of André Matsangaíssa, the founder of Renamo and the first commander of the guerrilla that waged war against the Frelimo government for 16 years, until the signing of the Rome General Peace Agreement in 1992.

Source: Lusa