MOZAMBIQUE: Bipartisan bickering perpetuates mistrust

JOHANNESBURG, 31 Aug 2005 (IRIN) - Residual mistrust between Mozambique's major political parties continues to threaten the country's hard-won democracy, according to political observers.

Although the FRELIMO government and the rebel movement, RENAMO, finally signed a peace agreement in 1992 after 16 years of war, neither side has totally let their guard down.

While RENAMO has consistently claimed that the Maputo government rigged successive post-war polls, despite a clean bill of health by poll observers, FRELIMO has chided the former rebel group for its apparent refusal to participate fully in the national recovery effort.

The latest salvo was fired earlier this week, when RENAMO accused the government of recruiting former combatants in a bid to undermine traditional strongholds. RENAMO spokesman Fernando Mazanga reportedly told the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, that an ex-RENAMO fighter had recruited up 150 former guerrillas for a "strategy of destabilisation" in the central province of Sofala.

Mazanga called on recently elected President Armando Guebuza to intervene in order to "maintain peace".

However, on Wednesday a senior official dismissed RENAMO's claims, labelling them "irresponsible" and "without substance".

"This is not the first time that RENAMO has made these accusations against the government and therefore we do not take them seriously. When there is proof, the government will act, but now there is no evidence that guerrillas are being recruited and trained to undermine RENAMO," a source in the government's department of communication told IRIN.

He explained that over the past month ex-RENAMO fighters in Sofala had indeed been recruited by the government, but this was part of an effort to integrate more demobilised soldiers into the police force.

"RENAMO has always complained that the government has not done enough to integrate their soldiers, but now that President Guebeza is doing that, they still have a problem," the Maputo-based source said.

Under the 1992 peace accord, Mozambique's post-war armed forces were to be drawn from government and rebel forces in equal numbers.

But Johane Zonjo of the University of Eduardo Mondlane in Maputo said the ongoing acrimony between RENAMO and FRELIMO was more about "unfinished business" than the integration of ex-combatants into society.

"For many years, RENAMO never made any big move to make sure that their soldiers were integrated into the police - now that Guebeza is doing it, there are objections. These complaints, which appear in the media, cannot be taken seriously, because it has become unclear just where RENAMO stands," Zonjo commented.

"There are those in the party who want to work with the government, and on the other side those who still have a grudge against the government for winning the war. The government knows this, and also realises that it will have to also be careful when it comes to dealing with the opposition."

Zonjo warned that unless RENAMO recommitted itself to connecting with their grassroots support, the party would run the risk of splintering in coming years.

"One of the main reasons RENAMO managed to command control of several provinces was because the government had, in the past, simply ignored some of these areas. But Guebeza, unlike [former President Eduardo] Chissano, makes trips almost monthly to remote areas. These trips are working, because more people now feel as if somebody in Maputo cares about them."

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