Renamo leader writes to Marcelo, says he wants to negotiate with Mozambique’s govt

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Renamo leader writes to Marcelo, says he wants to negotiate with Mozambique’s govt

1:19 CAT | 12 May 2016

Lusa (File photo) / Renamo leader, Afonso Dhlakama

The leader of Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama, has written to the Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa saying he is willing to negotiate peace with the Mozambican government, as long as the international community is involved.

The letter, reproduced yesterday by the weekly Canal de Moçambique and dated May 5 – during the Portuguese president’s state visit – expresses Dhlakama’s “willingness to reach a negotiated solution”, which he calls “a national imperative”.

Dhlakama, who is presumed to have been living in Gorongosa in central Mozambique since the end of last year, claims in the letter to be “committed to stability” as a condition for the country’s development, but reiterates that negotiation depends on the participation of the international community.

“It is our desire and will that the issues that oppose us to the government of Frelimo [Liberation Front of Mozambique] find solution in a frank and serious dialogue, where the knowledge, experiences and contributions of our international partners are not ignored or diminished,” the leader of the opposition writes.

After meeting the Mozambican president on May 4, President Rebelo de Sousa said he had listened to what President Nyusi had to say about peace in Mozambique, and was waiting to see how Portugal could help achieve that goal.

“You can not anticipate what kind of help [might be needed]. Friends should always be available to help their friends and only the circumstances dictate specifically what kind of help and when and how to exert it,” he said.

President Nyusi however says it is necessary to talk to Renamo on the political and military crisis that has shaken the country first, before thinking about international mediation.

“If we come to a time when there is a dispute, a fatal antagonism [such] that people do not believe in each other, then it may become necessary to take a step that matches those circumstances,” he said.

Afonso Dhlakama was invited to the banquet given by the Portuguese head of state on Friday May 7 in Maputo, with Renamo parliamentary leader Ivone Soares replying on his behalf that he was unable to leave his current whereabouts, though he welcomed the Portuguese input on the peace process.

Speaking after a meeting with Rebelo de Sousam, Soares said: “He [Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa] is very well informed about what is happening in Mozambique and I think that, being well informed, he is in a position to influence the parties so that there is an internationally mediated solution, as is our intention, as soon as possible.”

In the letter released yesterday, Afonso Dhlakama claims to have “expected as a Mozambican citizen and a political leader” that Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s visit “[would] help find ways to solve some of the problems that insist in prevailing in the country”.

In the lengthy document, the Renamo leader reiterates accusations of electoral fraud, nepotism, corruption, appropriation of the country’s resources and actions of repression against the opposition, including political assassinations.

“In pursuing this path, Frelimo believes that it will easily eliminate Renamo itself,” he says.

Dhlakama denies responsibility for the economic crisis the country is currently undergoing and the decline in foreign investment and argues that, by contrast, Renamo “has been protecting important economic infrastructure of not only national but also regional interest”, giving as examples ports, roads, gas pipelines and the power lines from Cahora Bassa.

The opposition leader further denies that his party’s armed wing has attacked civilians on the main roads in the centre of the country, explaining that the government does not use military vehicles to transport its soldiers to confrontations with Renamo and, “as you would expect, those targets are affected”.

Source: Lusa