RENAMO demands immunity for its MPs

Mozambique's national assembly has agreed to a demand from former rebel movement RENAMO to debate immunity for its MPs as a matter of urgency, PANA reported. The demand was resisted at a plenary sitting last week, with FRELIMO, the ruling party, arguing that it should wait for advice from parliament's legal affairs committee.

RENAMO MPs, bouncing on their tables, disrupted all debates in parliament for two days as they insisted that the question be discussed before anything else. The national assembly succumbed when, on the second day of the rancour, RENAMO MPs brought in whistles, hooters and kazoos, creating an even more infernal uproar. RENAMO chief whip Luis Gouveia threatened that unless the question of immunity was moved to the top of session's agenda, "the parliamentary crisis will continue in this house and throughout the country".

Capitulating, parliament's standing committee said it had suggested that upon resumption on Wednesday, the assembly should discuss RENAMO's appeal against a decision in January allowing the attorney general to start criminal proceedings against certain MPs. The MPs were being investigated in connection with disturbances during the 1999 election campaign, and clashes between police and demonstrators in November last year, which left at least 41 people dead. Commentators have noted that although RENAMO would get a chance to vote against the standing committee's decision on Wednesday, unless the FRELIMO majority made further concessions, RENAMO was certain to lose the vote. Frelimo has 133 MPs and Renamo 117.