Mozambique: Renamo calls for postponement of repeat elections - AIM
Notícias / President Filipe Nyusi and first lady Isaura Nyusi in Dom Jaime's funeral in Beira, on Saturday, April 11 2016
Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Saturday paid tribute to the late Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Beira, Jaime Goncalves, who died of illness, at the age of 80, on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Archbishop’s funeral in Beira, Nyusi praised his dedication to the search for peace, which had culminated in the signing, in Rome, on 4 October 1992, of the peace agreement between the government and the Renamo rebels, which ended the 16 year war of destabilization.
Goncalves had been one of the four mediators in the Rome negotiations between the government and Renamo which took place sporadically between 1990 and 1992. After Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama refused to sign the agreement on the agreed date of 1 October 1992, Goncalves is credited with a personal intervention which made a major contribution to Dhlakama’s eventual decision to sign on 4 October.
In his funeral eulogy, Nyusi said he was paying homage to a Mozambican who had proved himself a patriot. “As we witness the return of your body to the Father”, he said, “we want to continue your work and keep your legacy alive”,
Goncalves had delivered himself fully to the peace negotiations, the President added, “investing all his intelligence and personality, frontally and with perspicacity and patience”.
The Archbishop was not just a man of his home district, Buzi, or of his home province, Sofala, but of all of Mozambique. In unity, all Mozambicans recognised Goncalves as “an architect of reconciliation in the hope of peace”.
His death, added Nyusi, was felt by all, regardless of where they lived in the country, and regardless of their political or religious differences.
Other speakers at the funeral included the mayor of Beira and leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM), Daviz Simango, and the general secretary of Renamo, Manuel Bissopo. Bissopo was representing Dhlakama, who refused to leave his bush hideout in Gorongosa district to attend the funeral.
Goncalves was laid to rest in Beira’s Santa Isabel cemetery, alongside the grave of the first Archbishop of Beira, Sebastiao de Resende. This had been Goncalves’s express wish, in his last will and testament, written in November 2014.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.