Dhlakama accuses government of repression

Mozambique opposition leader Afonso Dhlakama said on Tuesday that he would hold more talks with President Joaquim Chissano only if government-backed militias ended attacks against his supporters, news agencies reported.

Dhlakama alleged that militias loyal to the ruling FRELIMO party were persecuting and killing his RENAMO supporters in northern Cabo Delgado province, where 41 protesters died in November clashes with police, and 82 suffocated in a crowded prison cell. “We can’t be simulating dialogue when people in Cabo Delgado are dying,” he said in an interview with the Portuguese daily ‘Publico’.

Chissano and Dhlakama met on 20 December for the first time since disputed general elections in 1999 for talks on how to end the political unrest and bolster democracy. They are set to meet again in mid-January. “There can be a dialogue so that we can agree on the conditions under which we Mozambicans will allow ourselves to be governed,” Dhlakama said. “We leaders have to know what is needed to more or less stop confrontation.” Dhlakama said the meeting last month did not mean that he had recognised Chissano as winner of the 1999 ballot.