Renamo attends peace celebrations

Opposition Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama attended Mozambique's peace celebrations on Friday, despite earlier threatening to boycott the event.

Dhlakama had linked his attendance to the ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of Mozambique's peace accord to the release of 14 Renamo supporters convicted of political violence in the northern town of Montepuez in November 2000.

Renamo spokesman Fernando Mazanga told state-owned Radio Mozambique on Thursday: "As a matter of principle, we had asked for the release of our brothers who had been imprisoned by Frelimo [ruling Mozambique Liberation Front] communists. It would not have made sense for us to take part in the celebrations while political prisoners languished in jail."

Mazanga alleged that visiting Italian Deputy Foreign Minister Alfredo Matica had received assurances from the minister in the Office of the Presidency, Francisco Madeira, that the prisoners would be released.

However, according to Radio Mozambique, Madeira denied the government had agreed to the release of the convicted men to enable Dhlakama to attend the celebrations.

"Only parliament can pass an amnesty law and it is a very long process," a political commentator told IRIN.

The signing of Mozambique's peace accord on 4 October 1992 ended 16 years of brutal civil war between the government and Renamo rebels, who were created by the then white minority Rhodesian government, and inherited by apartheid South Africa at Zimbabwe's independence.