RENAMO THREATENS DEMONSTRATIONS IN SOFALA

Mozambique’s main opposition party, the former rebel movement Renamo, has once again threatened to hold demonstrations, this time against what it calls the ruling Frelimo Party’s “refusal to enter into dialogue”. According to a report in the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”, the Renamo political delegate in Sofala, Manuel Lole, said on Saturday that, as from this week, his party would organise demonstrations throughout the province.This, he claimed, was in response “to requests from the population of this region from whom we have received various petitions for the launch of popular demonstration to remove Frelimo from power”.Sporadic discussions between Frelimo and Renamo delegations have been under way, at Renamo’s request, since early February, but have so far produced no results. Renamo insists on calling these talks “negotiations”, but Frelimo says there is nothing to negotiate and that it merely agreed to enter into a dialogue.Lole denied that Renamo is trying to renegotiate the 1992 peace agreement – instead he claimed that the “negotiations” are about implementing the agreement. ”We are not going to discuss whether the Agreement was well or badly written, we are discussing its implementation”, he said.“What did the Peace Accord deal with fundamentally?”, he asked. “It was about democracy and this democracy was interpreted in the agreement first as free, fair and transparent elections, which have never happened in the country”.In point of fact, the Peace Agreement is about the transition from war to peace. It concerns such matters as the cantonment and demobilisation of the two warring armies, and the formation of a new, unified Mozambican Defence Force (FADM). It contains a series of specific guarantees for Renamo to be enforced between the ceasefire and the first multi party elections (held in 1994). The implementation of the Peace Accord came to an end with the 1994 elections, described by the then United Nations special representative in Mozambique, Aldo Ajello, as “the best elections ever held in Africa”. The general provisions of the Accord, on political parties and democratic elections were transposed into the Constitution and into specific electoral legislation. ”The population of Sofala is impatient with Frelimo because it sees all its natural resources being dilapidated, and being exported unprocessed”, claimed Lole. He alleged that none of the resources and infrastructures in Sofala, including Beira port and airport, bring any benefit to the people of the province.“Since Frelimo is refusing to enter into dialogue, and because Renamo in Sofala has played a very important role since the start of the struggle for democracy, we have accepted the request of the people to press ahead immediately with the demonstrations”, said Lole, “So, as from this week, we shall send brigades to all the districts to prepare the population for demonstrations that will start this month”.He added “we are giving this warning through the mass media to draw the attention of all Mozambicans to the fact that we took the initiative for dialogue, but we are meeting resistance from the party in power. In this case, we have no solution other than to incite the population to civil disobedience”.”We are not afraid of dying”, boasted Lole. “We know our potential and so we have no fear of the police or of any other force that may be used to repress the demonstrations”.Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama has been threatening “nationwide demonstrations” since the day after the 2009 general elections. To date not a single demonstration has been held.