Mozambique peace process mediators ask for time to prepare suggestions

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Mozambique peace process mediators ask for time to prepare suggestions

2:55 CAT | 25 Jul 2016

O País / Mario Raffaelli in Maputo

The international mediators in the Mozambique peace talks on Friday asked for time to consider the government and Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) proposals and to submit their own suggestions to the delegations.

Mario Raffaelli, a mediator appointed by the European Union, told reporters at the end of the negotiating round on Friday that the day was marked by the many questions raised by the government and Renamo delegations, and it would take time to consider them.

“We need to discuss any suggestions that we think might help the process between ourselves,” said Raffaelli, former Community of Sant’Egidio chief mediator of the General Peace Agreement signed by the government and Renamo in 1992 in Rome.

Without committing to a date, the Italian politician said it would not take long for the group to prepare its proposals, and that they would be ready “soon” in order to “ensure the best chance of the delegations achieving concrete results”.

On Friday, Raffaelli said the talks were taking place in a favourable, understanding atmosphere, and that the mediators had presented proposals in relation to the main opposition party demand to govern in the six provinces where it claims victory in the general elections of 2014, the point of discussion at this time.

On the same day, Mozambican and Renamo authorities again brought levelled charges of armed attacks and assassinations in the centre of the country

Renamo reported shelling in the mountains of Gorongosa in central Mozambique, where party leader Afonso Dhlakama is presumed to be staying, and the Mozambican authorities blamed gunmen opposition for the murder of a traditional chief.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday urged an immediate cessation of military confrontations.

“What Mozambicans want is the immediate cessation of the killings and destruction of property,” Nyusi told a rally in Mopeia district, Zambezia province.

In an interview published on Friday by the weekly Savana, Afonso Dhlakama dismissed the idea of an immediate ceasefire and said that any ceasefire would only come into effect at the end of the negotiations.

“If we cease hostilities now, it would mean that the war had ended. But as we have not yet reached an agreement, not reconciled, not reached an understanding amongst ourselves, a ceasefire now would mean that, months later, we would have to resume hostilities, and that would be letting the people down,” he said.

Despite the resumption of negotiations in Maputo between the government and Renamo, reports of military clashes in central Mozambique have not abated, and ambushes on the roads attributed to the opposition’s armed wing and mutual allegations of abductions and assassinations have continued as before.

In an interview with Savana, Dhlakama again justified the ambushes on the roads in the centre of the country with the claim that the vehicles attacked are carrying military personnel.

“Renamo naturally tries to derail the enemy’s logistics. I say enemy because they come to attack us,” said Dhlakama.

Although Dhlakama has said that he is not prepared to enact a ceasefire, the spokesman for the largest opposition party called for “the immediate cessation of hostile acts against the president of Renamo and members of this political party” at a press conference in Maputo.

The moment, said António Muchanga, “is one for negotiations, and we must give those individuals [international mediators] who, in good faith, agreed to come to this country to help, chance to find a path to peace.”

The Mozambican government and Renamo began discussing the main opposition party’s demand that it take over governance of the six provinces where it claims victory in the general elections in 2014 in Maputo on Thursday.

The agenda also includes the immediate cessation of fighting between the parties, the defence and security forces, including the police and intelligence services, and the disarmament of the armed wing of Renamo and their reintegration into civilian life.

Source: Lusa