Mozambican government insists it has answered RENAMO letters

Since early October Renamo has refused to attend any more sessions of dialogue with the government unless observers and mediators are present – even though it was Renamo itself which requested the dialogue, and initially did not make the talks conditional on the presence of third parties.

The government has continued to invite Renamo to meetings in Maputo’s Joaquim Chissano Conference Centre, but Renamo has systematically boycotted them. Monday was no exception: the government had told Renamo that it would be at the Conference Centre for a meeting, the government delegation, headed by Transport Minister Gabriel Muthisse, arrived on time, but there was no sign of Renamo.

Renamo is insisting that it will not attend any more talks until observers and mediators are present.

In December, it demanded mediation by Mozambican constitutional lawyer Gilles Cistac, Italian bishop Matteo Zuppi, former South African President Thabo Mbeki, and an unnamed representative of the European Union. As for observers, Renamo proposed four Mozambicans –Anglican Bishop Dinis Sengulane, prominent academic Lourenco do Rosario, the former Vice-Chancellor of Maputo’s Eduardo Mondlane University, Filipe Couto, and Alice Mabota, Chairperson of the Mozambican Human Rights League (LDH). Six foreign observers were proposed, but all are countries rather than individuals. They are: the United States, China, Portugal, Cape Verde, Kenya and Botswana.

The government was willing to accept the names of Sengulane and Rosario but saw no reason to call on foreigners for assistance, and has repeatedly said it will not internationalise the dialogue.

Renamo claims that it has received no reply to its letter on mediation of 6 December, addressed to President Armando Guebuza. Muthisse told reporters that in fact the government has replied, but that Renamo is much mistaken if it imagines that such replies will come from the pen of Guebuza himself.

“It’s a fallacy, a lie to say that there is a letter from Renamo which the President has not answered”, said Muthisse. “Since the beginning of the dialogue we established with Renamo mechanisms for correspondence and exchange of information. This consists in using two figures, namely Augusto Mateus, the head of the Renamo leader’s office, who sends the letters to the government, and the secretary of the Council of Ministers, Carlos Taju, who sends the government’s answers”.

Muthisse pointed out that Guebuza can use whatever mechanism he chooses in correspondence, and in this case he has chosen to use the secretariat of the Council of Ministers.

“It does not seem appropriate to me that the head of the Renamo leader’s office should expect the President of the Republic to send a letter directly to him”, the Minister added. “I do not believe that the President should write letters with his own hand, sign them and send them to Augusto Mateus. The President does not need to respond to Mateus personally”.

“All correspondence in the dialogue has been answered by the government through the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers”, he stressed.

So Renamo already knew the government’s position on the question of mediators and observers. Indeed, the government had told Renamo it was prepared to consider the presence of Mozambican observers at the dialogue table. But first terms of reference for these observers had to be agreed, and that could only be done by the government and Renamo “sitting down and talking”.

In Muthisse’s view, the established mechanism for correspondence was quite sufficient “and there is no letter which the President of the Republic must write to Augusto Mateus”.

He lamented the continued ambushes and murders carried out by Renamo gunmen, particularly on the stretch of road between the Save river and the small town of Muxungue in Sofala province. He noted that Renamo “has been trying to spread this situation of instability to other parts of the country”.

“The stance of the government contrasts with that of Renamo which is once again trying to transform Mozambicans into people who are displaced within their own country”, Muthisse added.

Despite the murderous activities of the Renamo gunmen, Muthisse urged the Renamo politicians to return to the dialogue sessions in the conference centre. He called on Renamo “to embrace the spirit of peace and concord and join the government in seeking solutions to the problems that affect our country”.

“Any agreement about the forms of dialogue can only be achieved through dialogue”, he added.