MOZAMBIQUE: Dhlakama demands release of supporters
JOHANNESBURG, 14 November (IRIN) - Mozambican opposition leader Afonso
Dhlakama has demanded the release of his supporters arrested during last
week's political clashes which left 41 people dead, news reports said on
Tuesday.
Dhlakama gave a veiled threat of repercussions if his RENAMO followers were
not freed, and accused the FRELIMO government of wanting to return the
country to civil war. One political analyst, who asked not to be named, told
IRIN that Mozambique remained tense this week as the government was unlikely
to bow to RENAMO's demands.
The clashes on Thursday in the north and centre of the country, pitted
RENAMO supporters protesting elections last year they alleged were rigged
against the police who had outlawed the demonstrations. In some of the
confrontations that followed, the police said they were forced to use live
ammunition. In the worst scene of violence, in the northern town of
Montepeuz, 25 people were killed including seven policemen, and the local
prison and police headquarters were overrun. Stolen weapons still remain in
the hands of RENAMO, news reports said.
"It was a very serious incident, the most serious since the signing if the
peace agreement in 1992," the analyst said. "If you look at the number of
RENAMO people demonstrating it was a fiasco, but the way the government
reacted played into RENAMO's hands."
"I suspect that the government will still try and play tough. Instead of
releasing those arrested last week, it has started to prosecute them," the
political source added.
Newspaper publisher and editor Carlos Cardoza described RENAMO's strategy as
part of an "Al Capone syndrome". He alleged it was "politics by pressure, by
threats, by attacks," to force the government into a power-sharing
arrangement that the former rebel movement has been unable to win through
the ballot box. However, he stressed there are hardline elements within
FRELIMO likely to argue that RENAMO's provocation should be met by force.
"There is a worry in the air that the hardline elements in RENAMO and
FRELIMO will feed on each other and there will be a snowball effect,"
Cardoza said. He suggested that a way forward could be a commission of
inquiry as suggested by Anglican Archbishop Dom Denis Sengulane, as part of
a wider appeal "to cool things down". "I think an inquiry would point
fingers in both directions," added Cardoza.
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