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Lusa (File photo)
Peace negotiations between the Mozambican government and Renamo delegations reconvened on Wednesday in Maputo for the first time in this round, but no comment on the suggested attempt by mediators to meet the opposition leader was forthcoming.
“No statements today,” EU representative Angelo Romano told Lusa, avoiding comment on statements by leader of the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo), Afonso Dhlakama, on an alleged failed attempt by mediators to meet him in the Gorongosa mountains in the centre of the country.
In an interview with the weekly Canal de Moçambique, Dhlakama accused the army of having launched attacks on the meeting’s proposed location on Saturday, preventing it occurring.
“There was a substantial exchange of fire. They took a beating. I started hearing rumblings from here at 8:00 AM, so I called [mediator coordinator Mario] Raffaelli and told him the Defence and Security Forces were preparing an ambush,” Dhlakama said.
The Renamo leader said that he was ready to meet Mario Raffaelli and Jonathan Powel, representative of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the peace negotiations, somewhere in Gorongosa at the request of President Filipe Nyusi, but army movements near the site of the meeting and clashes with the armed wing of Renamo made it impossible to go ahead.
“The arrangement was that the area where we were going to meet would be safe and patrol-free. Everything was arranged. But surprisingly, in the early hours of Saturday, a heavily armed group of the Mozambique Armed Defence Forces left its Mazembe position heading for the place I had indicated,” Dhlakama said.
Dhlakama accused the head of the Mozambican state of duplicity, adding that, contrary to undertakings given, the army did not withdraw from positions close to the meeting location, and even reinforced its presence.
“I told him [Mario Raffaelli] that they [the army] were there in the Mapanga and Siwa positions, armed and shooting. I said ‘It’s not worth it, there is danger, there is great danger. It is better to return to Maputo because Filipe Nyusi has played us false’,” he told Canal de Mozambique.
After Tuesday’s negotiating session, journalists confronted Raffaeli over the alleged attempt to meet Dhlakama, which was already circulating on social networks, but the coordinator of the mediation team denied the accuracy of the reports.
“Those are rumours you are listening to, just rumours,” was all Raffaeli had to say.
In the Canal de Mozambique interview, the Renamo leader said he remained committed to negotiating the restoration of peace in Mozambique, adding that the mediators are also committed to the negotiation process, despite the alleged incident.
Lusa tried unsuccessfully to elicit comment from the government negotiating team and the Defence and Security Forces.
The peace talks will take another week’s break starting Saturday.
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