13. In an effort to build the legal framework for national defence, a legal package was
passed which, among others, included the rules which regulate issues on military
careers, from incorporation to reform namely the Decree N° 4/98, of 17 February, on
Military Statute of the Armed Forces. This legal tool, according to the Government,
defines, among other issues, rules for the passage from active soldier to Reservist or
Retired soldier, such as age limit and service time. Based on this rules significant
number of military officers become Retired or Reservist, regardless their origin, under the
terms of the Rome Agreements.
14. According to the Government Letter MDN n°2109SP/MDM/2012, it was on this basis that
from 1999 to 2012 of the total number of military officers that passed to the situation of
reserve, 92% are from FAM/FPLM and only 8% came from the former RENAMO guerrilla
forces. It also indicates that in the context of strengthening of the senior structures of the
FADM command, from April 2008, priority was given to the nomination of officials from
the signatory parties of the Accord. Thus, from the RENAMO side came the Deputy
Chief of Staff of the FADM, Air Force of Mozambique Command and Chief of Staff of the
Army, Deputy Inspector of the FADM and Deputy Directors of the General the
Departments of the General Staff of the FADM.
15. However, despite the mentioned fact, the Mozambican society has been witnessing and
questioning why there are armed men from RENAMO who continue with and make use
of warlike material as it happened recently, in March 2012, in Nampula province and in
the Maringué district at Sofala province, where, in the case of Maringué an ordinary
citizen was detained for interrogations. It should be referred that in Gorongosa district at
Sofala province RENAMO maintain heavy warlike material and its main military base
were armed men are practically “in shelter-trench”.
16. In addition, on the 17th of October 2012, the leader of RENAMO arrived in the former
RENAMO military base in Gorongosa with a group of former guerrilla fighters and in a
press conference indicated that he was there to demand the full implementation of the
General Peace Agreement (GPA) by FRELIMO, depolitization of public Services, among
other complains.
17. Likewise, it ought to be stressed that there have been meetings between the President of
the Republic and the leader of RENAMO, of which the last one took place at the
beginning of 2012, after another one that was held on the 8th of December of 2011, in an
attempt to find a platform to resolve the issues identified by RENAMO. Other meetings
also took place at the end of 2012 between RENAMO and the Government
representatives. However, RENAMO interrupted its participation in such meetings
allegedly because its counterpart is dealing with “highly important” issues with some kind
of “lightness”.
18. From these facts it means that there is a challenge that the two sides must address
urgently in this conflict by establishing more dialogue and resolve the issues that set
them apart, as to achieve an effective lasting peace rather than the present “status quo”
which takes the Mozambican population, and indeed some foreign investors, think that a
possible return to armed conflict is imminent.
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