Renamo Claims Renewed ‘Negotiations’, Frelimo Denies

20 May 2011

Maputo — Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique’s main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has claimed he is resuming what he called “negotiations” between Renamo and the ruling Frelimo Party.

Discussions between the two parties began in a Maputo hotel in February, but Dhlakama broke off this dialogue unilaterally in April, when he claimed that Frelimo was not serious about the discussions.

Interviewed by the independent weekly “Savana” in the northern city of Nampula, where he has been living for the past two years, Dhlakama claimed that Frelimo had contacted Renamo to ask for a resumption of the talks.

“A contact was made by a Frelimo commission for the negotiations to be held next week”, he said.

But when “Savana” contacted the Frelimo Central Committee Secretary for Mobilisation and Propaganda, Edson Macuacua, he denied that any such meeting was planned and accused the Renamo leader of “sleep-walking”.

“No meeting has been put on the agenda since Renamo unilaterally broke off the dialogue”, said Macuacua.

Frelimo “remains open to dialogue with all forces in society, including Renamo”, he added. But no future meeting with Renamo had yet been scheduled.

Dhlakama, however, alleged that Frelimo wants to discuss dismantling Renamo’s remaining barracks. This is a reference to the illegal security force that Renamo still keeps in the central districts of Maringue and Cheringoma. This force, which Renamo calls its “Presidential Guard”, consists of a couple of hundred men who, in violation of the 1992 peace agreement, were never demobilised.

Dhlakama added that he had other matters he wanted to put on the agenda, but refused to tell the “Savana” reporter what they were.

“We hope that this time the negotiations will be taken seriously”, he said. “Renamo does not want to be forced to hold demonstrations. The country does not need to live through what is happening in north Africa”.

Dhlakama has been threatening to hold nationwide demonstrations against the government even since Renamo lost the general elections of October 2009. But to date not a single demonstration has been held.

When Renamo broke off the talks with Frelimo in April, Dhlakama again threatened demonstrations which, he claimed, would sweep Frelimo from power “in 24 hours”.

This time, Dhlakama claimed that Frelimo had sent brigades into the neighbourhoods of Nampula city to “terrorize” the population so that they will not take part in Renamo demonstrations, “but I believe that, if there are demonstrations, all of us, including myself, will fight until we win”.

This claim makes little sense, since Nampula city, unlike some of the coastal areas of Nampula province, is a Frelimo stronghold. Frelimo would hardly need to intimidate people in a city where over two thirds of the population votes for Frelimo. Thus in the 2008 municipal elections, the Frelimo candidate, Castro Namuaca, was elected mayor with 71 per cent of the vote. Only 28 per cent of the voters opted for the Renamo candidate.

As for his “Presidential Guard” growing old in the bush of Maringue and Cheringoma, Dhlakama claimed that the Peace Agreement allows him to keep this force. But there is no clause in the agreement allowing any political party to keep an armed force of its own decades after the end of the war.

The peace agreement merely states “Renamo shall be responsible for the immediate personal security of its top leaders. The Mozambican government shall grant police status to the Renamo members charged with guaranteeing such security”.

This clause was one of a series of “specific guarantees for the period between the ceasefire and the elections”. It therefore ceased to have any effect after the first multi-party elections held in October 1994.

Although the peace accord did not oblige it to do so, the government repeatedly offered to incorporate the Renamo guards into the police. Dhlakama peremptorily rejected this offer in January 1998, and has repeated that rejection ever since.

Asked what would happen if the government moved to forcibly dismantle the Renamo “Presidential Guard”, Dhlakama claimed “that will be the end of peace in Mozambique. Peace will be undermined, because it will be Renamo that reacts, and not Afonso Dhlakama. If I wanted it, war would have returned”.

He seemed annoyed that the media keep talking about Renamo’s armed units in Maringue. “Why do the people who call for the dismantling of the Renamo barracks not also demand that the so-called President of the Republic ends hunger or poverty in Mozambique”, he asked.

To date, the government has preferred to avoid a confrontation with the Renamo units in Maringue. Rather than spill blood, it seems to prefer to let nature take its course, since none of the Renamo fighters are getting any younger.

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