Mediators insist on ceasefire in Mozambique

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Mediators insist on ceasefire in Mozambique

1:36 CAT | 23 Nov 2016

O País (File photo) / Mario Raffaelli

Mario Raffaeli, who coordinates the peace dialogue mediation team, says it is necessary to declare an end to hostilities before a definitive agreement is reached. The Mozambican government’s response to the decentralisation proposal is currently under analysis.

“What can be done at the same time [as the discussion of the decentralisation proposal] is a cessation of hostilities,” Raffaeli said in Maputo at the end of the Tuesday meeting with the government delegation.

Raffaeli said that the mediators would analyse the government’s response to the proposal they presented on the country’s administrative decentralization. The Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) delivered is contribution on Monday (November 21).

“We will analyse the government’s response and on Wednesday we will hold a mediators’ meeting to decide the next step,” Raffaeli added.

On Monday, the government and Renamo delegations analysed the new mediators’ proposal on decentralisation. “We are bringing positions closer together and discussing with the parties,” Raffaeli said at the end of another session between the mediators and individual parties.

The mediation team document, presented to the parties in October, proposes a “package of principles relating to the decentralisation process”, within the framework of the main opposition party’s demand to govern in the provinces where it claims 2014 electoral victory.

“It is not a document that presents a law, it is a document that sets out the principles that should guide the law”, Raffaelli explained at the time, stating that, once harmonised with the contributions of the parties, it would be sent to the Assembly of the Republic later this month.

This Tuesday, Raffaeli reiterated his determination to complete the document this month, noting that at this stage of the negotiations all items on the agenda were associated with the immediate cessation of military hostilities. “We continue to work,” the European Union-appointed mediator said.

Source: Deutsche Welle