Mediators submit proposal on appointment of Renamo governors – Mozambique

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Mediators submit proposal on appointment of Renamo governors – Mozambique

9:20 CAT | 28 Sep 2016

International mediators overseeing peace talks in Mozambique on Tuesday presented to the two sides a proposal on the opposition’s demand to be given power in the six provinces in which it claims to have won a majority of the popular vote in the 2014 general elections, which it says were marred by fraud.

“We presented a proposal on the problem of the appointment of Renamo governors and now the two sides will reflect on that,” Mario Raffaelli, the coordinator of the team of mediators told journalists after a session of the talks in Maputo.

Without outlining the proposal, Raffaelli said that reaching a consensus on this agenda item could facilitate the process of decentralisation, to which the governing Frelimo party has said it is committed.

“We think it is important to resolve this point definitively,” added Raffaelli, who was also chief mediator in the General Peace Accord signed in Rome in 1992 that brought to an end the country’s 16-year civil war, which claimed a million lives.

Also on the agenda at the talks are an immediate ceasefire, the depoliticisation of the armed forces, including the police and secret services, and the disarming of Renamo’s armed wing and the integration of its members into civilian life.

Central Mozambique has been plagued with violent clashes between Renamo fighters and the armed forces, amid mutual accusations of kidnappings and murders of activists on both sides.

Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has admitted responsibility for some of the ambushes carried out on the nation’s highways, saying that they were justified as a means of dispersing government forces, which he accuses of bombarding the Gorongosa hills, where he is believed to be based.

Source: Lusa