President talks with rebel leader by telephone

MAPUTO: Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi visited Gorongosa district, in the central province of Sofala, on Wednesday for a further meeting with Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the rebel movement Renamo, who has been living in a Renamo bush camp in Gorongosa since late 2015.

A statement from Nyusi’s office said the meeting was intended as part of “the efforts seeking to consolidate understandings and achieve effective peace”.

The current calm in Mozambique is due to a truce declared by Dhlakama in December 2016 and repeatedly extended.

Although there have been no clashes over the past year between Renamo units and government forces, technically Renamo is still in a state of rebellion. It still has an illegal militia under arms, and could return to war any time if Dhlakama chooses to end the truce.

The last time Nyusi travelled to Gorongosa, on August 6, he met personally with Dhlakama. This time something went wrong and the planned face-to-face meeting did not happen for what the statement called “organisational motives”, without giving any details.

Nyusi stayed at a tourist camp in Gorongosa National Park, and sent the general commanding of the police, Julio Jane, as his envoy to meet with Dhlakama somewhere in the Gorongosa bush.

The encounter between Jane and Dhlakama set up a telephone link between Dhlakama and the president. The statement said Nyusi “held a dialogue with the Renamo leader by teleconference, which took place cordially”.

The two men “discussed the progress made in the peace process and noted, with satisfaction, advances leading towards mutual consensus and finalisation of the documents to be agreed”.

Those documents are proposals on decentralisation and on the “disarmament, demobilisation and re-integration” of the Renamo militia. Nyusi and Dhlakama said these proposals should be presented for debate at the Mozambican parliament, the Assembly of the Republic.

The two men, the statement added, reaffirmed their “unequivocal commitment to peace” which would inaugurate “a radiant future for all Mozambicans”. Two working groups established between the government and Renamo – one on decentralisation, and the other on military matters – have been discussing the text of definitive agreements.

There is no longer any great controversy over decentralisation, since Renamo’s main demand, for the election of provincial governors, has been accepted.

This will, however, require a constitutional amendment, since the constitution establishes that governors are appointed by the president. Much more difficult are the military issues, since Dhlakama has demanded senior positions for Renamo officers in the armed forces and the police, as the price for disarming and demobilising the Renamo militia.

The meetings of the working groups have been taking place secretly, far from the eyes of the media, and so the content of the proposals is not yet known.

It seems impossible for parliament to approve the proposals this year. The current parliamentary sitting has at most another week to run before the deputies return to their home provinces for the Christmas and New Year holidays. –