Interior minister confirms clashes with Renamo

Mozambican Interior Minister Jaime Monteiro

Speaking to reporters in Canda, in the Sofala district of Gorongosa, where he was representing President Filipe Nyusi at the launch of the 2015-16 agricultural campaign, Monteiro said that on Thursday Renamo gunmen attacked a vehicle of the riot police which was on patrol in the Vanduzi area, also in Gorongosa. Two policemen were injured in the attack.

The clashes in Zambezia have been reported from Morrumbala district, which is where Renamo boasted earlier this year that it was setting up a new barracks.

Monteiro also confirmed that the defence and security forces are now dismantling Renamo bases and collecting the weapons found there. He said this would continue despite the recent clashes. Monteiro described the Renamo bases as “nests of instability”, and removing them was necessary to guarantee public order and tranquility throughout the country.

He said this action began on 9 October, when the defence forces disarmed the personal guard of Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama in Beira.

“Our main mission is to guarantee public order and tranquility”, stressed Monteiro. “So we shall continue to fight crime, particularly crime practiced with the use of firearms. We are now beginning the agricultural campaign, and the people want to work the land freely and peacefully, to increase production and productivity”. He promised that all the Renamo bases would be dismantled.

As for the alleged “disappearance” of Dhlakama, who has not been seen in public since 9 October, Monteiro said he is a free citizen entitled to travel wherever he likes, and the police will protect him just as it protects any other citizen.

Monteiro’s words were echoed by the General Commander of the police, Jorge Khalau, at a Maputo press conference on Friday.

He said that last Wednesday Renamo gunmen had attacked and burnt down houses in Morrumbala, but that police action subsequently returned that district to calm and security.

He stressed that the police will continue to neutralize Renamo armed men terrorising the local population. Since Dhlakama had authorised the disarming of his own bodyguard, Khalau saw no reason why anyone else in Renamo should continue holding onto guns.

Like Monteiro, he stressed that Dhlakama is a free man. He denied claims that Dhlakama had ever been under house arrest. He has not “fled” anywhere, Khalau said, since he had never been under arrest.