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Mozambican government soldiers patrol an area in Gorongosa in central Mozambique in July this year. – AFP

MAPUTO – Armed members of Mozambique’s rebel Renamo group, which is also the country’s opposition party yesterday attacked a convoy in the central Sofala province, the fourth such attack in more than a week, state radio reported.
Radio Mozambique said a number of cars and lorries came under fire in Muxungue district yesterday morning. No details were released about casualties.

Black plumes of smoke were seen rising from the cars being set fire on. Authorities rushed to the scene for rescue operations.
In spite of the escalation of violence, Mozambique President Armando Guebuza speaking at a rally in the central province of Manica on Tuesday said that the struggle continues against those who endanger peace in the country. He urged the public to be very vigilant against those who are stoking tension.

On Tuesday, armed Renamo members also ambushed another convoy in the same place, killing one civilian and wounded four others, who were later rushed to the Beira Central Hospital in Sofala.

The attacks followed the overruning of several Renamo military bases in Maringue in Sofala and in the northern province of Nampula on Tuesday, according to the defense ministry.

The Mozambican armed forces (FADM) on Tuesday clashed with Renamo bandits at Napome, in the Rapale administrative post, about 50 kilometres from the northern city of Nampula.

According to a report in the independent daily “O Pais”, the FADM were flushing out a Renamo group from a hideout they had began to establish in Rapale a week ago.

The group consists of members of Renamo elements, which used to protect the house owned by Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama in the Nampula street, Rua das Flores.

But since Dhlakama left Nampula over a year ago, and went to live at a new bush headquarters at Satunjira, in the central province of Sofala, these men have had nothing to do. On October 21, the FADM occupied the Satunjira base, and two days later the rebels in Nampula left Rua das Flores.

It is not known whether this group has been in contact with Dhlakama, whose current whereabouts are unknown.
The Tuesday shooting in Rapale caused panic among local residents, many of whom fled into Nampula city. “O Pais” reports that some communities in the mountainous parts of Rapale were virtually abandoned. In the city, reporters watched as ten pick-up trucks, all packed full of frightened people, arrived from Rapale.

No information was available of losses on either side. Some people in Napome told “O Pais” they had seen armed groups fleeing towards the neighbouring district of Murrupula.

The FADM were tight-lipped about the clash, while the spokesperson for the Nampula police, Miguel Bartolomeu, said that the defence and security forces are seeking information that will enable them to locate the Renamo groups.

Bartolomeu denied a report that the police had arrested the Renamo Nampula City delegate. He claimed he had merely been “notified to collaborate with the police”.

In Sofala, Renamo gangs are continuing to attack vehicles travelling on the stretch of the main north-south road, between the Save river and the small town of Muxungue, despite the fact that the vehicles now travel in convoys with a military escort.

In another development, Reuters UK news agency reported that Renamo on Tuesday boycotted a session of dialogue with the government demanding the presence of “national facilitators and international observers” as a pre-condition.

The government had scheduled yet another round of dialogue (the 25th) for Monday but the Renamo delegation did not attend.
Renamo did not inform the government that it was boycotting the meeting. The government delegation, led by Agriculture Minister Jose Pacheco, turned up at Maputo’s Joaquim Chissano Conference Centre. He told reporters, “Renamo is absent for reasons we don’t know”.
He also reiterated President Guebuza’s willingness to meet with Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama. “If the Renamo leader is indeed available, this meeting can happen”, Pacheco said. “There will be security. Nobody is going to cause him any harm”.

Pacheco also condemned the latest attacks by Renamo. “With this act, Renamo has once again demonstrated its bloodthirsty and anti-patriotic fury”, he said. “Now, more than ever, it is in all of our interests to see Renamo disarmed. No party can achieve its objectives by using force”, he said.

“From the moment that Renamo’s armed men began to endanger the freedom of citizens, the government of Mozambique took measures to defend citizens’ welfare”, Pacheco added. “The government has defended and will continue to defend its citizens”.

Asked about the death of the head of the Renamo mobilisation department, Armindo Milaco, Pacheco said “it is up to Renamo to explain the circumstances under which he lost his life”.

The head of the Renamo parliamentary group, Arnaldo Chalaua, told reporters last Friday that Milaco died of wounds suffered when the armed FADM forces occupied Dhlakama’s headquarters at Satunjira, in the central district of Gorongosa, on October 21. There has been no independent confirmation of this.

The head of the Renamo delegation to the dialogue, parliamentarian Saimone Macuiana told reporters, “For Renamo, the presence of facilitators and observers is indispensable for the negotiating process”.

He denied that Renamo had boycotted the Monday meeting. “Through appropriate channels we submitted our document to the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers, informing the government that we are demanding the presence of facilitators in the dialogue”, he said. “If the government says the facilitators and observers are present, then we’ll go there right away”.

Renamo has been demanding “facilitators and observers” for over a month, and the government has repeatedly said it sees no need to bring third parties into the discussions. The government points out that the meetings are being held at Renamo’s request, with an agenda that was proposed by Renamo, and that when Renamo first asked for an audience, it did not say anything about facilitators and observers.
Although Renamo calls the meetings “negotiations”, the government says it is not negotiating anything, but merely holding a dialogue with the main opposition party, at that party’s request.

When reporters asked Macuiana to comment on Renamo’s armed attacks in Sofala, he refused, saying, “Today we are going to speak about our absence from the meeting. As for these Renamo attacks, there is a spokesperson who will make a statement at the appropriate moment”.
The Renamo parliamentary group has also reaffirmed its loyalty to Dhlakama, even while admitting that it does not know where he is. The head of the group, Angelina Enoque told reporters on Monday that Renamo deputies support Dhlakama “unconditionally”.

She accused the government of attempting to assassinate Dhlakama, claiming that this was the real purpose behind the taking of Satunjira.

The government, she said, had hoped to exhibit Dhlakama as a “politico-military trophy”, in an attempt to destroy Renamo. Despite this, the party remained “firm and united”.

“Contrary to the wishes of Frelimo and its President (Armando Guebuza), although he is somewhere that we don’t know, we believe that our leader is alive, healthy and continues to inspire thousands of Mozambicans”, said Enoque, cited in Tuesday’s issue of the independent newsheet “Mediafax”.

Asked about the claimed assassination plot, the assistant director of defence policy in the Defence Ministry, Col Manuel Mazuze, told reporters if the government really wanted to kill Dhlakama, it would have done so already.

Political tensions in Mozambique grew since last week when government troops raided and occupied the bush camp of Dhalakama in Sofala, prompting Renamo to unilaterally announce the end of 1992 Rome peace treaty, which ended the 16-year civil war between Renamo and Frelimo-party-led government. – Wires-HR.