Mediators want Nyusi-Dhlakama meeting

The mediators flew to the central city of Quelimane on Thursday to meet with Dhlakama, and it seems that they will now report back to Nyusi.

Cited on Friday by the independent television station STV, the spokesperson for the mediators, Lourenco do Rosario, who is Vice-Chancellor of the Polytechnic University, said they believed that a face-to-face meeting between Nyusi and Dhlakama could break the deadlock over points two and three of the agenda for the dialogue – namely defence and security and the separation of the state from political parties.

The dialogue has made no headway on the critical issue of disarming and demobilizing the Renamo militia, referred to politely as Renamo’s “residual forces”, because Renamo refuses to deliver a list of names of those it wishes to see incorporated into the armed forces (FADM) and the police.

Renamo still insists on a shareout of senior military and police positions, demanding 50 per cent of them for itself. The head of the government delegation to the dialogue, Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, has pointed to the contradiction of Renamo wishing to separate the state from political parties, while at the same time demanding promotions in the armed forces on an explicitly political party basis.

Some headway had been made on point three, and a fortnight ago there was optimism that a declaration of principles could be signed on the separation of political parties from the state. Then, at the last minute, Renamo threw in a new demand – it wanted to bar people who hold explicitly political posts, including the President of the Republic, from engaging in politics. The government rejected this demand as absurd.

It is not clear why the mediators believe that bringing Nyusi and Dhlakama together will solve the problem. Nobody has suggested that either Pacheco or his Renamo opposite number, Saimone Macuiana, are operating without the knowledge and consent of their top leaders.

Meanwhile, the police on Thursday detained a truck carrying materials to a Renamo military base at Mazembe, in Gorongosa district, in the central province of Sofala.

According to a report on Radio Mozambique, the truck was carrying ten sacks of maize, 140 sacks of maize flour, eight 200 litre drums of vegetable oil, six 50 kilo sacks of beans, 50 bags of cement, a television set, a parabolic antenna, rolls of wire and solar panels.

The truck driver was accompanied by an electrician, who would presumably have installed the panels, television and antenna. Both said that the material was part of the preparation for a visit by Dhlakama to the Mazembe base.