Former Mozambican President, Joaquim Chissano, on Thursday called on the leader of the main opposition party Renamo, Afonso Dhlakama, to accept holding face to face talks with the current President, Filipe Nyusi, to help push the peace process across the country.
“He (Dhlakama) demanded the agenda of the talks, and he was given. But the agenda is not important. What is important is the meeting to discuss everything,” said Chissano, quoted by the state-owned Radio Mozambique.
Chissano said the people must make Dhlakama understand that “we need peace.”
A few days ago, Nyusi invited Dhlakama for face to face talks in Maputo, but Dhlakama rejected the invitation.
Dhlakama, who still lives at Gorongosa mountains in the central province of Sofala, said that face to face meeting was not important. What is important for him now is to govern the six provinces he snatched more votes in last October’s general elections which were won by the ruling party Frelimo.
The provinces concerned are Zambezia, Sofala, Nampula, Manica, Tete and Niassa.
Since his loss to Nyusi in the 2014 Presidential election, Dhlakama has been demanding the creation of “autonomous regions” to govern the six provinces, the idea rejected by the Frelimo-led goverment.
The government said that Mozambique is one country and one people, and cannot be divided.
The two sides were involved in the country’s 16-year civil war which ended in 1992, under the general agreement mediated by the Catholic Church in the Italian capital, Rome.
Dhlakama accuses the government in power since independence of systematically violating the accord, an accusation rejected by the Maputo administration.
The two sides have been in talks since 2013, and it did work with a ceasefire agreement signed in last September. While, on Monday, the former rebel movement Renamo boycotted sessions of the dialogue.
According to the state-owned news agency AIM, Renamo spokesperson Antonio Muchanga claimed on Monday evening that event which precipitated the boycott was what he described as the government’s enticement of Renamo officers to join the armed forces (FADM) and the police.
The head of the government’s delegation to the talks, the Agriculture Minister, Jose Pacheco, lamented the Renamo behavior, saying the former rebel movement was not interested in peace.
The negotiations are aimed at resolving the country’s political crisis. One of the major results of the negotiations includes the scrapping of the National Electorial Commission (CNE) and set up a new one.
The on-going talks are also aimed at disarming Renamo fighters and integrated them into the army and the police forces.
But the party of Dhlakama would not provide the list of its men to be disarmed, because it wants the sharing of top positions in the army and the police, which was rejected by the government for the reason that the army and the police cannot be politicized. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
