For the past three months, Renamo has refused to provide the list, claiming that a pre-requisite is agreement on a “model” for integration of the Renamo men into the defence and security forces. By this, Renamo means a shareout of senior military and police positions – 50 per cent to be filled by the government and 50 per cent by Renamo.
At the end of this fruitless round of talks the deputy head of the government delegation, Transport Minister Gabriel Muthisse accused Renamo of trying to privatize the armed forces, and warned this this was completely unacceptable.
“Renamo wants ownership of half the army and half the police”, he said. This was “the most blatant form of exclusion possible”, since it left out the vast majority of Mozambicans who do not belong to any political party.
Time is now running out. The agreement on cessation of hostilities, signed by President Armando Guebuza and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama on 5 September, gave the team of international military observers (EMOCHM) 135 days to complete their work, and that period ends on 18 January.
There are 23 foreign observers (from Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Cape Verde, Portugal, Italy, Britain and the United States). Accompanied by 70 Mozambican officers (half from the government and half from Renamo), they were deployed to Sofala, Tete, Nampula and Inhambane provinces as well as the Maputo headquarters – but then found there was nothing to observe.
With Renamo failing to deliver the list of names, it was quite impossible to recruit Renamo gunmen into the army and police, demobilize others back to civilian life, and disarm and demobilize the Renamo militia. To date not a single Renamo militiaman has been disarmed – although, from the government’s point of view, this was the whole purpose of the September agreement.
So inactive was EMOHCM that all its members went home for the Xmas and New Year holiday period.
The September agreement envisaged the possibility of extending the existence of EMOHCM, if its tasks were not completed within 135 days. But Muthisse warned there was no guarantee that this would happen. The government, he said, only favours renewing things that are functioning,
“So we are appealing to Renamo to give us the list quickly, because it is only when they are in possession of this list that the observers will be able to work”, he stressed.
Muthisse accused Renamo of trying to insert more of its own members into EMOCHM. “They want to use this process to accommodate their own people”, he said. “They were talking of putting another 10 people into EMOCHM”.
A further obvious problem is that the present government will only exist for a few more days. When President-Elect Filipe Nyusi, winner of the 15 October presidential election, takes office, the current government will be dissolved and Nyusi will appoint a new one. Whether the new government will continue the dialogue with Renamo is unknown – particularly since Renamo, claiming that the elections were fraudulent, does not recognise Nyusi as the new president.
The head of the Renamo delegation, Saimone Macuiana, accused the government of violating the agreement on cessation of hostilities by moving members of the defence and security forces in what he called “conflict zones”, particularly in the central province of Sofala. He claimed that the movement involved not only ordinary police units, but also special forces and heavy weaponry.
He complained of police searches in Sofala, including on the road leading to Mangunde, the home village of Afonso Dhlakama, where the Renamo leader spent the holidays. Macuiana added that Renamo has protested about these troops and police movements to EMOHCM, to the country’s parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, and to the Attorney-General’s Office.
Muthisse retorted that nowhere in the agreement on cessation of hostilities is there any clause preventing the government from moving the defence and security forces wherever it deemed necessary. “Mozambique has not yet lost its sovereignty”, he remarked.
It would be a different matter if government forces had attacked Renamo, but that was not what Macuiana claimed.
“It would be serous if they were to say that these forces invaded a Renamo base, or prevented Renamo men from carrying out their activities”, said Muthisse. But no such accusations had been made.
Post published in: Africa News