Roundup: Mozambicans calls for more actions towards lasting peace

Six months after Filipe Nyusi took over as Mozambique's new president, he seems to still enjoy considerable popularity amongst the society.

There are increased calls and pressure for more actions rather than good speeches to bring lasting peace, political and military stability in the southern African country, which had endured a 16-year civil war after its struggled independence from Portugal in 1975.

Nyusi reiterated his willingness to continue prioritizing dialogue in order to preserve national unity and peace during his working visit to the central Mozambican province of Manica on Saturday.

Also, his Prime Minister Carlos do Rosario on Saturday reiterated that Nyusi is willing to meet at any moment with Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the main opposition Renamo, to discuss the re-establishment of effective peace in the country.

Referring to the threats to divide the country, do Rosario declared "we can't use a passport to leave Maputo and visit Chigubo (which belongs to the southern province of Gaza where he is currently visiting) or any other part of the national territory. So President Nyusi is speaking with all Mozambicans about the need to preserve peace. He is always willing to speak, even with the leader of Renamo."

In fact, the dialogue between the government and Renamo, which has continued for more than two years, is still in progress, while with no significant achievements concerning the disarmament and integration of the Renamo armed men, under the agreement both sides signed last September.

Analysts in Maputo tend to point out that next days may be crucial for the future of Mozambique, as it is expected that a meeting between president Nyusi and Renamo's leader Dhlakama will take place, to clear the clouds over the future of the country, since Nyusi is now in Manica and Dhlakama in Sofala, two provinces bordering each other in central Mozambique, and just a desire from both sides can action a meeting.

Renamo, the country's largest opposition party which had waged the deadly civil war, has once again rejected the results of 2014 elections, and in return wants to take power in six northern and central provinces it claims had won and seeks to set up autonomous "provincial municipalities", which is illustrated in a bill it presented to the parliament earlier this year.

In late April, the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, threw the Renamo bill out on constitutional grounds.

After that, Dhlakama has been reportedly threatening to drag the country back to war if his request could not be reconsidered.

The "provincial municipalities" are in fact the center of the issue at this moment. On Saturday night, Dhlakama was quoted by the private Television Station STV as reiterating that he will rule this year the provinces where his party won last year's elections, which has been once again categorically rejected by President Nyusi during his recent visit to France.

Ordinary people interviewed by Xinhua viewed differently on the peace issue but with the same desire of lasting peace across the country.

Samuel Langa, a secondary school teacher in the country's second largest city Beira, told Xinhua that to fulfill that desire the Mozambican government should consider a "peaceful co-existence" with the opposition particularly Renamo, instead of calling it "a threat to national unity and peace" or condemning Dhlakama of making "warmongering speeches".

Actually, there are many points to substantiate this concern: Mozambique still has two armies involved more recently in heavy exchange of fire particularly in the last days near Ndande, Renamo's military base in Moatize in the central Mozambican province of Tete, near the Malawi border.

On Saturday night, Dhlakama, quoted by STV, said that 53 governmental soldiers were killed in the on-going fighting since June, adding that his forces were only responding to the attacks of the government forces, resulting in Mozambicans' crossing the border to neighboring Malawi.

According to Malawian media reports, there are now 700 Mozambican refugees in Nthache, Mwanza District, in Malawi, who had fled from the fighting.

According to Langa, "it's true that international praises from the international community like the World Bank on the government's 'efforts to ensure financial inclusion and economic development' are necessary and welcome, but they shouldn't be a cover-up to hide internal political problems of Mozambique."

Manuel Mutote, a Maputo vendor, told Xinhua that the problem in Mozambique is that only when things are bad people run to sign agreements, and once peace is restored they forget about them.

"It is like a lost and found luggage. You are worried before you get it back. After that you tend to forget that once you lost your luggage," he added. Enditem