Mediators meet with government delegation, make no statement – AIM report

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Mediators meet with government delegation, make no statement – AIM report

7:35 CAT | 21 Oct 2016

The international team of mediators facilitating dialogue between the Mozambican government and the Renamo rebels on Wednesday met behind closed doors with the government delegation on the Government/Renamo Joint Commission.

This followed a meeting on Tuesday between the mediators and the Renamo delegation. The mediators have altered the form of the dialogue, avoiding meetings of the entire Joint Commission, until difficult points have been ironed out with each of the delegations separately.

After the Wednesday meeting, the coordinator of the mediating team, the Italian Mario Rafaelli, once again refused to say what issues had been discussed. He told reporters that the Joint Commission will only make a statement on the matters discussed, once the government and Renamo delegations had again sat behind the same table.

But it is not clear when this meeting of the full commission will take place. Raffaelli said “the next meeting will also be bilateral, in order to look into the matters discussed in greater depth”.

The pace of the talks has slowed considerably. In late September, the work of the Joint Commission was suspended until 10 October. But on 9 October, one member of the Renamo negotiating team, Jeremias Pondeca, was assassinated, and Raffaelli then announced a further delay in the resumption of talks to 18 October.

The Joint Commission was set up in order to prepare a face-to-face meeting between President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama. But there is no date fixed for any such meeting, and in a recent interview Dhlakama ruled out any meeting with Nyusi before signing a document agreeing all the points under discussion in the Commission.

Meanwhile there is no cessation of hostilities, and Renamo gunmen are continuing their low level insurgency, mostly in the central provinces.

Source: AIM