Mozambique: President sees ‘unwavering determination’ not to take up arms again

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Mozambique: President sees ‘unwavering determination’ not to take up arms again

7:00 CAT | 17 Jun 2023

Image: André Catueira / Lusa

The president of Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi, said on Thursday that there was an “unwavering determination” on the part of both the Frelimo government and the main opposition party, Renamo, not to take up arms again, more than three decades after the end of the country’s long civil war.

“We can safely say that the closure of this base shows unwavering determination by my Government and Renamo to no longer return to military hostilities and consolidate lasting peace in Mozambique,” the head of state said during a ceremony to close the last base of Renamo’s armed wing, in Vunduzi, an administrative post in the Gorongosa district of Sofala province, in the centre of the country.

The base is closing 30 years and eight months after the official end of Mozambique’s civil war.

The ceremony represents the end of the demobilisation process for 5,221 guerrillas who remained at the bases in remote areas and who began handing in their weapons in 2019.

“From this podium I also want to congratulate Renamo” for its’ leaders’ “commitment” and the “successful conclusion” of this phase of peace consolidation in Mozambique, said Nyusi.

Minutes earlier, the Renamo leader, Ossufo Momade, had also committed his party to peace, while warning Frelimo that irregularities in this year’s voter registration could threaten the electoral process.

He also complained that there continued to be discrimination against Renamo members, and even unsolved killings.

In his speech, Nyusi announced the creation of a “mechanism to manage complaints” to turn them into “solutions” through a working group set up for the purpose.

“It is a [peace] process that will not stop,” he promised.

Nyusi recalled and paid tribute to Afonso Dhlakama, the historic Renamo leader who died of illness in 2018 and with whom he began speaking directly in 2017, after years of failed mediations between the two sides.

The dialogue between the two men led to the 2019 Peace Agreement, under which Thursday’s closing ceremony took place.

The closure of Renamo’s last base is “a fundamental aspect” of the process, but not the only one needed to consolidate peace in Mozambique following the 2019 agreement, the head of state stressed.

“In the coming days another step will be taken” with new meetings, he said, without giving details, noting that “the word that now remains is reconciliation, real reconciliation.”

Nyusi made an appeal for “the beneficiaries of DDR” – the acronym for the demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration process – “to be received with open arms” in civil society.

He also addressed them: “Do not be instrumentalised” based on the idea that “nobody wants you,” he said, leaving in the air the idea that there are forces interested in blocking the peace process, ut without naming them.

“We will not allow it,” he stressed.

If there is discrimination against demobilised soldiers – a scenario that Momade alluded to – Nyusi said that there should be “space to find out the real culprits, whatever their party.”

On another complaint of the Renamo leader, the delay in starting to pay pensions to former guerrillas who surrendered their weapons, the president acknowledged that there was a lack of funds.

“It took too long because there was no money,” he said. “I cannot lie.

“To pay pensions, one deducts [contributions] from salaries” but in the case of the former Renamo guerrillas, that was not the case, he pointed out, adding that it was therefore necessary to “work, run” behind donors and partners for aid, until the final announcement of the legislation that at the start of this year fixed the pensions for reintegration of the ex-combatants.

New events are being planned for the coming weeks, both in the centre of Mozambique and in Maputo, to mark the progress of the peace process in the country.

Source: Lusa