PARTIAL CONSENSUS” IN GOVERNMENT-RENAMO DIALOGUE

After two weeks in which no meetings were held, the dialogue between the Mozambican government and the former rebel movement Renamo resumed in Maputo on Monday, and the two sides claimed they had reached “partial consensus” on the terms of reference for the foreign observers who will monitor a cessation of hostilities.The meeting agreed that there must be an immediate end to the hostilities, and that a meeting should be held between President Armando Guebuza, and Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama.In addition, the two sides agreed that the observers should monitor the entire process of the cessation of hostilities, and of the social and economic reinsertion of demobilised Renamo fighters. They agreed on a spirit of “social reconciliation” and an end to all expressions of hostility – including in the media. But none of these points will be implemented until the terms of reference are agreed in full. In other words “immediate” cessation of hostilities does not mean immediate, but only when the document is completed and agreed. That is not at all simple. Renamo is still demanding the removal of all the government’s defence and security forces from the areas of conflict – essentially this means pulling back the armed forces (FADM) and the police from much of the central district of Gorongosa. Dhlakama is still living in a Renamo base somewhere on the slopes of the Gorongosa mountain range and says he will not leave until he has received “security guarantees”.The other major point of discord is Renamo’s demand for half the senior positions in the military and the police. The government has repeatedly dismissed this demand as an absurdity, stressing that the armed forces cannot be constituted on a political party basis.

The head of the Renamo delegation, senior parliamentarian Saimone Macuiana, said the consensus achieved so far showed that significant work had been done between the two sides – however, he warned “we cannot conclude that there have been major advances, because the essential matters have not yet been completed”. 

Nonetheless, Macuiana hoped that in the coming days, the terms of reference would be completed “so that peace can be attained”.“We don’t understand the government’s decisions”, he complained, “because on 9 June there was an indication that we would adopt the terms of reference, but today the government retreated on some points where we had already achieved some consensus. The government pulled back on aspects which were already consensual”.But for the government, the key issue remains the disarming of Renamo. The head of the Renamo delegation, Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, regretted that there was no consensus over the demilitarization of Renamo.“Renamo thinks this point isn’t part of the terms of reference”, he said. “But it makes sense for the observers to come and observe the fundamental pillars of the entire process of dialogue”.Pacheco repeated that Renamo does not feel comfortable about demilitarisation and demobilisation, and so it always tries to push the subject onto a future point in the agenda for thedialogue, In that way, the observers would have “no room to talk about the matter”. Meanwhile, Renamo gunmen continue to ambush convoys of vehicles on the stretch of the main north-south highway between the Save river and the small town of Muxungue in the central province of Sofala.According to a report in the independent daily “O Pais”, last Friday Renamo killed two soldiers and two civilians in an ambush at Mutinda, 22 kilometres south of Muxungue.According to the paper’s source, the two civilians who died were passengers on board a bus owned by the company Nagy Investments, while the two soldiers died in an exchange of fire with Renamo.There was another ambush on Saturday, but no deaths were reported.