Raul Domingos calls for “good faith” in the peace and national reconciliation agreement

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Raul Domingos calls for “good faith” in the peace and national reconciliation agreement

2:06 CAT | 06 Aug 2019

File photo: Lusa

The former head of the Renamo delegation in the negotiations which led to the 1992 General Peace Agreement has called on both Renamo and the Mozambican government to act in good faith on the peace agreement that they will sign today in Maputo.

“I think a peace agreement must be fundamentally based on good faith,” Raul Domingos told newspaper O País about the peace and national reconciliation agreement that will be signed today in Maputo.

The President of the Republic, Filipe Nyusi, and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade, will sign the final peace and national reconciliation agreement formally ending the military clashes between the two parties today.

Raul Domingos, who held various positions in Renamo and led the party delegation to the negotiations that resulted in the 1992 agreement, argues that the new understanding will only succeed if the signatories act “in good faith and with an open heart”.

“Everything you sign has to be something that you think you can implement,” Domingos, who was expelled from Renamo after the 1999 general election, adds.

The government and Renamo, he continued, should not sign peace agreements because they “want to win at a particular stage or achieve other goals” that differ from those of the majority of Mozambicans.

The peace and national reconciliation agreement will be the third the two parties which have signed, following the 1992 General Peace Agreement which ended the 16-year civil war, and an agreement on the cessation of military hostilities signed on 5 September 2014, which ended months of confrontation following disputes over electoral law.

Following the signing of the 2014 agreement, Renamo’s armed wing and the Mozambican Defence and Security Forces continue to engage in clashes prompted by the main opposition party’s refusal to acknowledge the results of the 2014 general election.

Source: Lusa