No date yet for cease-fire: Mozambique peace talks freeze again for two full weeks

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No date yet for cease-fire: Mozambique peace talks freeze again for two full weeks

1:40 CAT | 25 Aug 2016

Government and Renamo agreed yesterday to suspend military hostilities to allow international mediators to travel to the Gorongosa mountains in Sofala province and meet Afonso Dhlakama. However, no specific date for the ceasefire has been announced.

Speaking at the end of a seven-hour Joint Commission session, Mario Raffaelli read a statement to the press.

The statement did not announce the date or the terms on which the mediation team will go to Gorongosa.

According to Raffaelli, the government has agreed to the mediators’ proposal for an immediate suspension of all hostilities throughout the country and the Executive believes that the Defence and Security Forces enforce a mission of the State which is enshrined in the Constitution.

According to the government, represented in the Joint Commission by the delegation appointed by the President of the Repubic, the Defence and Security Forces, in the positions they currently occupy across the country, are in a mission to protect the populations, their property and to allow the free movement of Mozambicans in an atmosphere of peace, harmony and security.

The government believes that the suspension of hostilities is what will allow for the opening of a safe corridor for the movement of international mediators.

For its part, Renamo has also agreed to the mediators and international facilitators “visiting” their leader, and for this purpose accepts a temporary truce in the Gorongosa mountains, provided that the government withdraws the forces stationed there, due to the imminent danger that they represent, the statement reads.

Mediators handed both parties a proposal for the suspension of hostilities and submitted to the negotiations table a preliminary issue concerning the need to have direct contact with the Renamo leader.

Any decision on the implementation of the goals sought by the parties through the current dialogue process may only take place after the meeting between the President and the leader of Renamo.

Joint Commission sessions are interrupted, by agreement between the two delegations and the mediators, and will resume on 12 September.

Source: Notícias