RENAMO leader Afonso Dhlakama has warned that Mozambique could be 'divided in little pieces' if the FRELIMO Government doesn't enact a 'departization' of the State. In an exclusive interview to the Portuguese news agency Lusa and the Lisbon based weekly newspaper SOL, Dhlakama declared that 'democracy is disappearing' in Mozambique.
'There's no party alternation.(...) A Government of transition should 'departize' the State. Nowadays, even a school student needs to attend a FRELIMO rally to progress. We want to end this in a peaceful fashion. If they don't accept that, Mozambique will be cut in half', said Dhlakama in August. 'Didn't that just happen in Sudan?', he asked.
The opposition leader left the capital Maputo two years ago and is living in Nampula, in the North. Dhlakama has recently announced plans to regroup former RENAMO guerilla fighters not only in the North, but throughout the country to launch a 'revolution'.
In early September, Dhlakama issued a new threat, vowing to topple Armando Guebuza's Government by December 2011.
Most RENAMO fighters were demobilized under the United Nations supervision in 1994, immediately prior to the country's first multi-party parliamentary and presidential elections that ended a 16 year-long civil war, one of the bloodiest proxy conflicts between Washington and Moscow during the Cold War. RENAMO, a right-wing party, was reportedly funded by the United States, South Africa and South Rhodesia's white resistance (nowadays Zimbabwe). FRELIMO had extensive ties to the Soviet Union and China.
Most RENAMO fighters have since returned to civilian life or joined the the new national army of Mozambique. RENAMO never fully demobilized, though, keeping a small forced described as a 'Presidential Guard', based in the central districts of Maringue and Cheringoma.
Despite growing popular anger against Guebuza, there are serious doubts about RENAMO's ability to launch a military campaign against FRELIMO. Most former right-wing fighters are now old and unwilling to abandon civilian life, and there are no signs that RENAMO is raising much needed money for its military operations.
Renewed fears of civil war in Mozambique
12.9.11
MobiGreen
