Published On: Thu, Jan 9th, 2014

Mozambique: Renamo starts killing in Inhambane after reopening Base

Renamo confirmed the reopening of its Base in the Hemoine District of the Inhambane Province, after killing six Members of the Mozambican Defense and Security Forces.

nsnbc ,Following recent reports about the appearance of Renamo insurgents in the villages of Fanha-Fanha and Pembe in the Hemoine District of the southern Mozambican Inhambane Province, and fleeing villagers who reported that some of the insurgents said that they had unspecified work to do in the region over the coming months, Renamo confirmed on Wednesday, after killing six members of the Mozambican Riot Police (FIR), that they were reestablishing their old civil-war time base in Nhamunde, located near Pembe.

File photo

File photo

The independent Mozambican newspaper Medifax reported that six FIR troops have been killed in clashes with Renamo insurgents in the Homoine District, where Renamo committed the worst massacre of the 1977 – 1993 civil war on 18 July 1987, killing 427 residents of the district capital.

The clashes took place in the administrative post in Pembe. Clashes with Renamo insurgents were also reported from the neighboring Catine.

After the presence of the insurgents and fear of repetitions of civil war massacres displaced almost the entire populations of Fanha-Fanha and Pembe, and reports that the insurgents were working at the reestablishment of its base in Nhamunde, the Mozambican government has initiated operations to dislodge the gunmen before they can grow in strength.

Medifax reports that besides the six who were killed, another eight police officers were injured and brought to the rural hospital in Chicuque in the Maxixe District. The local television station STV reported that two of the insurgents have been killed during the fighting while Medifax reports about two killed civilians.

Meanwhile, Renamo, which since the 1992  internationally brokered peace accord that ended the civil war in 1993 has functioned as Mozambique’s main opposition party, has now publicly admitted that the insurgents Inhambane belonged to Renamo.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the national spokesman for Renamo, Fernando Mazanga, announced that these men were members of Renamo’s illegal Presidential Guard and people who were purged from the national army, who were never integrated into the army, because of government neglect.

It is worth noticing, that Renamo, during the 1977 – 1993 civil war, often forcibly, recruited some 100.000 child soldiers and that many of those on both sides who were known for having committed some of the worst war crimes were not admitted to the national army (FADM).

The validity of Mazanga’s statement is also being questioned because when the FADM was established in 1994, under the terms of the 1992 peace accord, in which it was agreed that the army would be established exclusively on the basis of 15.000 volunteers from Renamo and 15.000 volunteers from Frelimo. There were never 30.000 volunteers, and troops from both sides have since launched several mutinies until the situation stabilized.

Renamo spokesman Mazanga further claimed that the insurgents in Homoine wanted to join the Renamo troops in the central Mozambican Sofala Province, where Renamo leader Dhlakama had begun reestablishing a military base in 2012.

Dhlakama’s decision to recall former Renamo insurgents, to rearm, to launch a new recruitment campaign and to rebuild the military force, which had been first established as an anti-communist insurgency that was supported by colonial Rhodesia, apartheid South Africa, the USA, Portugal and other European nations was made, after it became known in 2012, that Mozambique could become the worlds second largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.

Renamo has since then begun to demand “a cut in the country’s coal and gas revenues” and “greater influence in the FADM. The government of President Guebuza has since stressed on several occasions that the constitution of the country only provides for one legal, military force, and that it is the obligation of the government to uphold law and order, protect the citizens as well as the national integrity of Mozambique.

On 21 October 2013, FADM forces seized Renamo’s base in the Sofala Province, after Renamo had launched several deadly attacks against military units in the region.

With Renamo, both being represented in parliament and having relaunched its armed insurgency, the party is both increasing its political and military campaigns, in what analysts describe as an attempt to cast the country into a new civil war up the October 2014 parliamentary and presidential elections.

Some analysts suspect the influence of foreign interests, especially centered around the network of NGO’s financed by the self-proclaimed philanthropist and multi-billionaire George Soros behind Renamo’s return to a civil war footing.

Renamo is, among others, claiming that President Guebuza plans to amend the constitution so as to allow him a third term in office, a claim Guebuza rejects as unfounded. The chairman of the George Soros funded the Mozambican Human Rights League, Alice Mabota has increased its accusations about human rights abuses, often with unfounded claims. One question worth asking is, from where does Renamo receive the funding for rebuilding an armed insurgency.

The Renamo’s strategy appears to be based on standard Hegelian dialectics. On the one hand, it levies accusations, according to which the government attempts to prevent Renamo from taking part in the elections in October on an equal footing, on the other hand, it launches a de facto war against the armed forces of Mozambique and the government, eventually forcing the government to take decisive action against members of Renamo, regardless whether they are trying to protect themselves with plausible deniability, saying “we have no contact to the armed Renamo units in Inhambane” or not.

Forcing the government taking such action would then justify foreign-backed demands for yet another “humanitarian intervention” for “freedom and democracy” by core NATO members under the auspices of the United Nations. The questions many are asking is whether it is the will of the population for peace, or the will of transnational gas giants who shall determine the future of the country.

Ch/L – nsnbc 09.01.2014

Read our coverage of Mozambique with News, Opinion and Analysis in nsnbc international.

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