Maputo, Mozambique — Afonso Dhlakama, leader of Mozambique's main opposition party, RENAMO, Friday tried to pin the blame for the murder of journalist Carlos Cardoso on the shoulders of President Joaquim Chissano and the ruling FRELIMO party.

Speaking at a Maputo press conference, Dhlakama linked the death of Cardoso with the 9 November demonstrations organised by RENAMO which led to clashes in which over 40 people died.

"As far as I'm concerned, Cardoso was killed because after the demonstrations, he clearly said that he held FRELIMO and Chissano responsible for the massacres of the demonstrators," Dhlakama declared.

But anyone who reads Cardoso's paper, Metical, will know that he said nothing of the sort.

In fact, Metical's coverage of the clashes was balanced and sensitive, seeking information from all possible sources.

On the basis of eyewitness accounts, Metical concluded that RENAMO had been responsible for the worst of the riots, at the northern town of Montepuez, where 25 people died, and also for the violence in Nametil.

But Metical also published reports from the Human Rights League indicating that the police had opened fire without provocation in several other places, notably the city of Nampula.

It is a matter of record that Cardoso was no supporter of RENAMO. Throughout the 1980s, when he was director of AIM (Mozambique News Agency), Cardoso regularly denounced RENAMO as puppets of South African military intelligence, and he had no problems whatever in calling them "bandits."

More recently, Cardoso was the first journalist to analyse RENAMO's claims of victory in the December 1999 elections and find them false.

Cardoso submitted RENAMO's own figures to mathematical analysis and found that in reality they projected a victory, not for Dhlakama and RENAMO, but for Chissano and Frelimo.

Dhlakama admitted that Cardoso had never collaborated with RENAMO and could not be described as a RENAMO sympathiser.

He said: "I only knew Cardoso through the television (where he frequently appeared on Mozambican Television political debates)."

Dhlakama was speaking on the very day of Cardoso's funeral, but while the top FRELIMO leadership, including Chissano, attended the ceremony, there was no sign of Dhlakama.

RENAMO was, however, represented by several senior members of its parliamentary group.