Mozambique: RENAMO General Secretary detained, then released

Bissopo was accompanied by the Renamo head of mobilization, Armindo Milaco, and three other Renamo members.

According to a police source, cited by Radio Mozambique, Bissopo and his companions refused to stop when ordered to do so at the police checkpoint. They were then arrested for disobeying a legitimate authority, and sent to the Gorongosa district police command. Here a case file against them was opened and sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

To make matters worse, according to the Radio’s source, Bissopo threatened the Gorongosa police. He claimed that the armed men loyal to Renamo would attack the Gorongosa police command.

An obvious problem with the detentions is that both Bissopo and Milaco are members of the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, and thus enjoy parliamentary immunity. Interviewed by the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, Sofala Provincial Police Commander, Joaquim Nido, said immunity did not apply in this case, since the men were arrested while commiting a crime.

But he declined to give any further details about the arrest, merely saying that they would be heard by a judge and then released. Minutes after talking to the commander, “Mediafax” was indeed informed that Bissopo and his companions had been restored to freedom.

Bissopo, speaking to the daily paper “O Pais”, said he and his companions had invoked parliamentary immunity as a justification for disobeying the road block. He said he had told the police they could not search the car without a warrant signed by a judge.

But the police officer in charge replied that he had “orders from his superiors to shut Bissopo up because he is inciting violence”.

Bissopo said he was held in Gorongosa for two hours, and then was released with an apology from the police commander, who claimed he had only been detained in the first place because of “an excess of zeal” on the part of members of the riot police.

Bissopo said he had left the Renamo base at Satunjira, in Vunduzi, where Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama is currently living, in order to buy supplies in Gorongosa. However, according to the “Mediafax” report, the real reason for the journey was to pick up a fax in Gorongosa town from the office of President Armando Guebuza, replying to a Renamo request for “urgent dialogue” with the government.

In his letter to Guebuza, Dhlakama had asked for a reopening of dialogue in order to reduce political tension following events earlier this month in the small Sofala town of Muxungue. Renamo had attacked the police post in Muxungue, killing four members of the riot police. Two days later armed men, believed to be from Renamo, attacked two buses and two trucks on a stretch of the main north-south highway, near Muxungue, murdering a further three people.

According to a statement from the government press office (GABINFO), Dhlakama’s letter was dated 13 April and was entitled “need for urgent negotiation between the government of Mozambique and Renamo”.

As far as the government is concerned, however, there are no negotiations, but simply a dialogue. Three rounds of dialogue were held in December, without any results, between a Renamo team headed by Bissopo, and a government delegation headed by the Agriculture Minister, Jose Pacheco.

Guebuza has re-appointed Pacheco to head the government team. He will be accompanied by the Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Gabriel Muthisse, and the Deputy Minister of the Public Service, Abdurremane Lino de Almeida.

The government announced that the next round of dialogue is scheduled for Monday, in the same Maputo hotel where the December talks were held. It is not yet clear whether the Renamo delegation will again be headed by Bissopo.

One of Renamo’s main demands is for scrapping the current electoral legislation, which was passed by parliament in December, with the ruling Frelimo Party and the second opposition force, the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM) voting in favour, and Renamo voting against.

Renamo had insisted that the new National Elections Commission (CNE) should be formed on the basis of what it called “parity” – with four members appointed by Frelimo, four by Renamo, four by the MDM, and two by extra-parliamentary parties. In reality, this would not be parity at all, but an opposition majority of ten to four.

Despite Dhlakama’s call for dialogue, Renamo is continuing to threaten disruption of the municipal elections scheduled for 20 November. At a Maputo press conference on Thursday, Renamo national spokesperson Fernando Mazanga, said Renamo’s decision not to allow elections this year was “unshakeable”. Of polling stations

But he did not explain how Renamo could possibly implement this threat. Since the day following the October 2009 general elections, Renamo has been promising to hold nationwide demonstrations – yet to date not a single Renamo demonstration has taken place. And disrupting elections held in many thousands of polling stations is much more logistically challenging than holding a demonstration.