Mozambican Minister of Justice says definitive peace will only be achieved with reconciliation

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Mozambican Minister of Justice says definitive peace will only be achieved with reconciliation

11:57 CAT | 22 Jan 2018

Lusa

Mozambican justice minister Isaac Chande said on Saturday that the country’s final peace will only be achieved with the reconciliation of all Mozambicans, calling on religious confessions to contribute to the process.

Between 2015 and 2016, the government and Renamo became embattled over the latter’s decision not to recognise the result of the 2014 elections.

“Effective peace in Mozambique can only be achieved through genuine reconciliation among Mozambicans,” the Minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs said at an interfaith worship service on World Religion Day in Maputo on Sunday.

For Isaac Chande, the spread of a message of national unity should be a priority for religious denominations.

“It is our expectation that religious confessions are increasingly committed to their contribution to the creation of a climate of tolerance and peace,” he added.

“Peaceful coexistence between different religious groups in Mozambique must be a commitment assumed by all as a way to ensure that the dream of Eduardo Mondlane [founder of the Liberation Front of Mozambique] is realised,” he said.

“Our common goal is for peace and tolerance among Mozambicans,” he said, adding that the government was committed to the final resolution of the political and military crisis the country has experienced.

Between 2015 and 2016, Mozambique witnessed confrontations between government forces and the armed wing of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), who did not recognise the results of the 2014 general elections and accused Frelimo of fraud.

Following the escalation in the military conflict, mainly in the centre of the country, a ceasefire was declared by Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama in December 2016 and relations between the president of the largest opposition party and the Mozambican head of state, Filipe Nyusi, have since improved.

Negotiations for a new peace agreement were marked by a handshake between the two on 6 August last year when Filipe Nyusi went to the Gorongosa Mountains for a two-hour meeting with Afonso Dhlakama.

Last week, the Mozambican president said that the package on decentralisation and military matters, the main points in the peace talks with Renamo, was in its final phase.

Source: Lusa