Mozambique: Raul Domingos calls for dialogue in Renamo to resolve internal crisis

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Mozambique: Raul Domingos calls for dialogue in Renamo to resolve internal crisis

3:54 CAT | 24 Oct 2019

in file CoM

Former Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo) leader Raúl Domingos yesterday urged the leadership of Mozambique’s main opposition party to opt for dialogue to overcome the crisis provoked by the guerrilla’s breakaway dissident wing.

“The problem of the military who do not accept the leadership of [Renamo] President Ossufo Momade is a very easy problem to solve, compared to the Renamo-Government conflict,” he said in an interview with Lusa.

Raúl Domingos was considered Renamo’s number two for many years before being expelled from the party following disagreements with the late leader of the organisation, Afonso Dhlakama.

Commenting on the opposition of a Renamo splinter group to Ossufo Momade’s leadership, Domingos argued that the path of dialogue should be followed, just as the party proceeded in negotiations leading to the 1992 General Peace Agreement with the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) government.

“Renamo was able to dialogue and reach an agreement with the then enemy. I’m talking about the 90’s, when the negotiation was to end the war, it was a negotiation between enemies,” Domingos recalled.

Following the peace talks, the two parties shook hands and began to treat each other as brothers, he continued.

The politician, who now leads the extra-parliamentary Peace, Democracy and Development Party (PDD), considers the opposition to Ossufo Momade normal, given that Renamo is in a transitional phase following the death of its historic leader, Afonso Dhlakama, in May 2018.

The late leader’s charisma and weight, he continued, meant that Renamo never had a succession plan or any preparation for that moment.

“I think it’s normal. Transitions have always been difficult and replacing a figure like Afonso Dhlakama is not easy,” he concluded.

The leader of the self-styled Renamo Military Junta, Mariano Nhongo, has proclaimed himself the party’s president and disputes Ossufo Momade’s leadership, accusing him of being a government agent.

Mariano Nhongo, a lieutenant general, accuses Momade of damaging the organisation in the course of negotiations on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of Renamo’s armed wing.

Source: Lusa