Manica: Renamo headquarters burned and members detained elsewhere – Canalmoz

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Manica: Renamo headquarters burned and members detained elsewhere – Canalmoz

3:13 CAT | 21 Feb 2017

The Renamo party headquarters in the village of Machiri in the administrative post of Dombe, Sussundega district, was set on fire by persons who Renamo claims were members of Frelimo last Thursday.

The action has been condemned Renamo but casts a cloud over efforts to maintain the truce and a climate of peace.

Sofrimento Matequenha, Renamo delegate in Manica and a deputy of the Assembly of the Republic, said that the action ruins Renamo’s effort to coordinate with the Defence and Security Forces a peaceful coexistence between Frelimo and Renamo itself.

“These are the groups that are straining our coordination,” he says. “They have been ordered to abide by the truce, but they do not want to obey the orders of their commander,” Matequenha said, going on to condemn the detention of members of his party in Nhamapassa, Honde administrative post, Báruè district, and in the Púnguè-Sul in the district of Vandúzi in Manica province.

“On 15 February, in the village of Nhampassa, in the Báruè, the Community Police arrested three members of Renamo and took them to the police station. The captain received them and had them imprisoned in the cells. They were released the next day [February 16], after I called the provincial police commander,” Matequenha told Canalmoz.

He said that on the ground in Manica, effort at coordination between the provincial police commander and the Renamo political delegate was being tarnished.

“Báruè cannot be an island, different from other districts in the province. On February 16, they also arrested a party member in Bárué, who was released on February 17,” Matequenha said.

Manica Police Commander Armando Mude says he has been cooperating with the Renamo delegate to avoid clashes between the police and Renamo guerrillas in the Chito and Mavodze areas of Manica district, and in Sabenta in Tambara district.

“I should like to thank the Renamo delegate for the cooperation and coordination we have been enjoying in Manica. When there is a situation that the police sees as requiring the his intervention, we inform in, and he calls there.

“In some areas, armed men of Renamo have been circulating, but instead of going in in a violent and coercive way, we call the delegate and he intervenes, and the men return to their positions,” Mude said, refraining however from talking about the fire at Renamo headquarters and the arrest of the Renamo members. He preferred rather to speak about the truce, stating that it was a truce in reality and that there was a time when it was not easy to go to areas in the interior due to Renamo ambushes.

Source: Canalmoz