Mozambique ex-Rebels, President 'Want to Avoid War'
Mozambique's Renamo and the country's president are determined to avert a new war, despite the ex-rebels declaring a 1992 peace deal over, a negotiator said Tuesday.
Renamo demanded that government forces withdraw from the group's military base they seized on Monday, pledging not to restart hostilities, independent negotiator Lourenco do Rosario told a press conference after meeting the group's leaders.
The movement "demands that the head of state withdraws his troops from that area in the country," he said.
Mozambique's ex-rebels said on Monday that the government seizure of their camp "signals the end of the Rome Peace Accords" that ended 16 years of civil war.
But Renamo "reaffirms that it does not want to return to war," the negotiator said.
President Armando Guebuza also renewed his commitment that "dialogue is the best way forward despite the skirmishes," according to Do Rosario.
The ex-rebel group staged a pre-dawn attack on a police station Tuesday, hours after saying the government's raid on its base had broken a two-decade-old peace deal that ended one of Africa's worst civil wars.
Source: Agence France Presse
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