Renamo dissident leader says approach with government failed – VOA

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Renamo dissident leader says approach with government failed – VOA

4:14 CAT | 02 Nov 2020

File photo: VOA

Renamo dissident leader Mariano Nhongo said on Saturday, October 31, that peace negotiations with Maputo had failed after successive violations of a seven-day truce decreed by President Filipe Nyusi.

“There was no truce, and there is no truce, and within this year there may be no truce, and even next year there may be no truce. Renamo has its agenda, and its agenda is to govern the country,” under an independent democracy, Mariano Nhongo told VOA, announcing the collapse of the dialogue with the government.

The Mozambican government suspended attacks on the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta from Sunday 25th October for one week ending last Saturday, ostensibly to create an opportunity for dialogue with the opposition splinter group.

The Renamo general said he had held “lengthy talks” last week with the UN Secretary General’s special envoy, Mirko Manzoni, and denounced the violation of the unilateral truce with new abductions and murders recorded during the seven days of the ceasefire.

“Yesterday (Friday 30th) I spoke to the ambassador, Mirko Manzoni, and explained: ‘Friend, you have nothing to do here anymore, you are just strolling, you are not doing anything’,” Nhongo said by phone from Gorongosa.

For Nhongo, the truce was “a cheat” by the government, designed to cover the persecution of the leaders of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta and forestall retaliation, and insisting that the ceasefire lacked good faith.

“There is no truce. The (self-proclaimed) Military Junta refuses to deceive the world. And do not think that the Military Junta is looking for money; we are not looking for money,” Nhongo said, without clarifying whether any proposal was made in this regard.

The leader of the self-proclaimed Renamo Military Junta reiterated that, for any negotiation to take place, the government must make public the letter sent by the group in September 2019, which contains its true demands.

“This brother of ours, Filipe Nyusi, is a cheater. He knows that when he reads (discloses) this document, the complaints we make against him” will be known, he said, accusing the president of having “torn up” the agreement he had agreed with Afonso Dhlakama before he died, and of having implemented a “vitiated” agreement signed with Ossufo Momade.

“When (Afonso) Dhlakama passed away, we already had a landing strip in the place where the Renamo Congress was held. The strip was not for the Congress; Congress was held when Dhlakama lost his life. That strip was for the landing of helicopters to transport Renamo men to be placed in all branches of the Defence and Security Forces,” Nhongo explained.

“I was already there, as a general, and this (which was agreed at the time) is where? And today they are looking for peace, where will it come from?” he asked.

However, the former military strategist to Afonso Dhlakama said that he still expects common sense to bring the government to proceed with the negotiation of a new agreement, starting with the disclosure of the petition.

“Therefore, we will have a solution further ahead, but at the moment, we have no solution,” Nhongo said.

The government has yet to comment on the failure of the effort to end months of attacks on roads and villages in Manica and Sofala provinces in central Mozambique, the Mozambican president having announced last week that contacts had already begun with a view to starting a dialogue.

Source: VOA Portugues