Listen: Nyusi reiterates willingness to negotiate with Junta and Nhongo calls for an end to murders – VOA

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Listen: Nyusi reiterates willingness to negotiate with Junta and Nhongo calls for an end to murders – VOA

4:02 CAT | 12 Oct 2020

File photo: Voa Portugues

President Filipe Nyusi on Friday (9-10) again restated his willingness to talk with the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta to put an end to insecurity on roads and in villages in the centre of the country.

Speaking in Chimoio, capital of Manica province, President Nyusi said that the region’s economy was being held hostage by insecurity, and stressed the need to pacify the provinces affected by the attacks.

“Our economy requires peace and security, so I want to once again make myself available to lead this peace process in this region, and across the country, and I will continue to collaborate with the Renamo leadership and the brothers who need to join us,” the president said at the end of a two-day working visit to the province in a clear reference to the Renamo dissidents.

Also on Friday, the UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy to Mozambique, Mirko Manzoni, said in a statement that he remained firm in his commitment to ensuring a definitive peace, and invited the parties to find the best ways to silence their weapons.

“I firmly believe that the peaceful resolution of the conflict through communication and dialogue is the only credible way forward,” Manzoni said of his efforts to mediate dialogue between the dissidents, Renamo and the government. He insisted that Mozambicans deserved to live without fear and reiterated the invitation to dialogue between the parties.

“This opportunity to lay down arms and reintegrate society in a relevant way must be extended to everyone,” Manzoni observed, again inviting the leader of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta to join the demobilization process.

Conditions for dialogue

Dissident leader Mariano Nhongo on Saturday subjected any dialogue to the disclosure of the petition sent to the government a year ago and the cessation of attacks on the bases where he has gathered his men, as well as the cessation of kidnappings and murders of Renamo members.

Nhongo said the conflict had evolved to the current level because the government had ignored the splinter group’s calls not to sign agreements with the new Renamo leadership and had moved forward with a military solution.

“This is no longer an internal conflict for Renamo. It is the Defence and Security Forces and the Army who are fighting against the (self-proclaimed) Renamo Military Junta,” Mariano Nhongo told VOA by phone from his hiding place in Gorongosa.

The dissident leader added that the readiness for dialogue expressed by influential personalities in Mozambique were vitiated by new reports of abductions and murders of members of his group.

“It is not possible to negotiate while being hunted down with weapons,” Nhongo said, denouncing the latest attacks on Junta members.

New abductions and murders

On the 7th October, Nhongo continued, five Renamo members were kidnapped and murdered in Dombe, and a sixth member was murdered in the Pungwe-south area, another area where there are frequent reports of attacks.

“If it is time for us to negotiate, then the Frelimo (government) must accept the disclosure of the document we sent,” the splinter group leader demanded, again refusing to negotiate with Ossufo Momade.

Source: Voa Portugees