30 November 2008
Maputo — A group of men who once fought for the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels during the war of destabilisation in Mozambique on Friday took the Renamo general secretary, Ossufo Momade, hostage in the northern city of Nampula.
The former guerrillas had worked as Renamo polling station monitors in Nampula during the municipal elections held on 19 November, but say they have not yet been paid. According to a report in the Maputo daily paper "Noticias", they accused Momade of stealing their money.
They also alleged that Momade, as a leader of the party, was one of those responsible for Renamo's disastrous showing in the local elections, where it lost all five of the municipalities that it controlled (with the possible exception of the northern port of Nacala, where a second round will probably be necessary).
Journalists had been invited to a press conference by Momade on Renamo's assessment of the election results. Momade dismissed the elections as "fraudulent" and claimed that the ruling Frelimo Party had placed members of the riot police inside the polling stations.
No observer noticed any presence of the riot police, though it is true that in some polling stations members of the ordinary police did not remain outside the 300 metre radius imposed by law.
Momade also accused Frelimo of "diverting" electoral registers in the Nampula municipalities of Angoche, Nacala and Nampula City. Neither of these allegations was made by Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama during his Maputo press conference last Wednesday.
But Momade did not propose taking any immediate action. Instead, he said "we, the Renamo demobilized, have our ears open to hear what the National Elections Commission will announce".
That was not what the former guerrillas wanted to hear. The Nampula provincial head of the demobilized Renamo fighters, Simiao Bute, said they wanted an energetic position from the party leadership against "the children's games that Frelimo is playing".
Bute said the former guerrillas are demanding that the Renamo leadership order the start of violent demonstrations against the election results. No such instruction came from Momade, and so Bute and his men took the secretary general hostage.
Considerable confusion ensued and for a period the journalists were not allowed to leave the building.
The Renamo spokesperson in Nampula, Arnaldo Chalaua, denied that money was at the root of the former fighters' discontent. "It's not true. The general secretary didn't bring any money at all", said Chalaua.
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