Renamo no-show scuppers meeting with government

The first meeting of the working groups set up between the Mozambican government and the main opposition party, RENAMO, was aborted on Monday when RENAMO delegates failed to show up, PANA reported. Six working groups were set up to look at various governance, social and economic issues after President Joaquim Chissano and RENAMO leader Afonso Dhlakama met in December and January.

The pair had agreed that the groups would start work from 19 February and would report back to the them by 15 March. Justice Minister Jose Abudo, heading the government team on constitutional, parliamentary and legal matters, said no one turned up even though he had arranged the meeting with RENAMO delegation head Gulamo Jafar, but RENAMO said the government should take responsibility for the "misunderstanding". David Alone, RENAMO's general co-ordinator of the working groups, claimed that direct communication between Abudo and Jafar was invalid, and that RENAMO would only recognise correspondence concerning the working groups if it went via Dhlakama's office