Nyusi says next days will be decisive in Mozambique peace talks

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Nyusi says next days will be decisive in Mozambique peace talks

5:22 CAT | 27 Jul 2017

Lusa (File photo) / Filipe Nyusi

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi said today that the next days will be decisive in the peace dialogue with Renamo, considering that talks with the largest opposition party “has not been an easy task”.

“The next few days will be decisive for all of us,” said the Mozambican head of state, without elaborating on the state of the peace negotiations with the Mozambican National Resistance (Renamo).

Filipe Nyusi spoke during the first day of the meeting of the central committee of the ruling party, Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo), in Maputo.

According to the Mozambican President, dialogue “has not been an easy task”, but it is “the right thing”.

“The aim is to shorten the waiting for peace period,” said Filipe Nyusi, adding that peace is a humanist precept and must be safeguarded.

For the head of state, the only way to end the political and military crisis between his party and Renamo is a frank and open dialogue.

“Frelimo has always rejected the view according to which to dialogue would be to alienate fundamental principles,” he added, pointing out, as an example, the first agreement reached between Frelimo and Renamo in Rome in 1992.

The Mozambican President also called for the involvement of all active forces in society in the struggle for peace consolidation, noting that stability is a precondition for the country’s development.

“We have to win stages and contribute to the development of indivisible Mozambique,” concluded the head of state, who hopes that the Frelimo meeting will revitalise the common goals that “have always guided” the party for more than 40 years.

Mozambique has seen an indefinite truce since May following contacts between Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama.

Parallel to the current truce, the government and Renamo are negotiating around the decentralisation of the state, depoliticisation of the FDS, Defence and Security Forces, and disarmament of the military wing of the main opposition party.

Between 2015 and December last year, the country was once again the scene of confrontations following the main opposition party’s refusal to accept defeat in the general elections of 2014.

The wave of violence included attacks on civilian targets that the government attributed to Renamo and political assassinations of members of the main opposition party and the ruling Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo).

The Frelimo central committee meeting, which ends on Saturday, discusses party proposals to govern in the next five years, anticipating a new victory in the legislative elections scheduled for 2019.

Source: Lusa