Police disarm Renamo guards

The Renamo guards were escorting the party’s general secretary, Manuel Bissopo, and were detained at about 17.00 in a hotel in the central city of Chimoio. The police seized from them six AK-47 assault rifles and a pistol.

The Manica provincial police commander, Francisco Almeida, cited by Radio Mozambique, said that the Renamo guards are for the “exclusive protection” of Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama, and that this was determined by the General Peace Agreement signed by the government and Renamo in 1992. Thus, when they accompanied Bissopo, the guards were being used outside of the provisions of the agreement.

“An operation took place to disarm Renamo men, who were armed and in uniform, and who circulated under the pretext of protecting the party’s general secretary”, said Almeida. “What is envisaged is that the only figure obliged to move around with an armed escort is Afonso Dhlakama. Hence we had to restore order”.

“We avoided undertaking the operation in a public place, because that would disturb public order”, added Almeida. He said that the guns and ammunition would be returned to the Renamo headquarters.

Almeida said the police did not intend to hinder the work of Bissopo, who has been visiting Manica province since Monday.

A Renamo captain, Francisco Chaterera, said that disarming the guards was peaceful because they had received orders from Dhlakama not to open fire under any circumstances.

“We were carrying out the party mission to accompany the general secretary”, he said. “The police arrived and asked to speak with the commander, and suddenly a policeman entered the room where the general secretary was. It was there that I ordered them to hand over the guns the police were requesting. Not only did the police outnumber us, but we were forbidden to open fire”.

Almeida, however, is quite wrong about the peace agreement, since there is no clause anywhere in the agreement that allows any Renamo leader, Dhlakama included, to keep a private militia.

The existence of a Renamo security force is envisaged in the agreement, but as a temporary expedient. The relevant clause reads “RENAMO shall be responsible for the immediate personal security of its top leaders. The Government of the Republic of Mozambique shall grant police status to those Renamo elements charged with guaranteeing this security.”

But this provision is included in the section on guarantees in Protocol V of the agreement, and is strictly limited in time. It is listed as one of the “Specific Guarantees for the Period between the Ceasefire and the Holding of the Elections”.

In other words, this guarantee lapsed with the first multi elections of October 1994. It was never envisaged that any political party could maintain a private army for decades after those elections.