Five Killed in Mozambique Clashes
Four police officers and an ex-rebel leader were killed in clashes in central Mozambique on Thursday, a local official said, amid renewed tensions between the government and its former civil war foes.
Members of the former rebel group Renamo attacked a police command post in the town of Muxungue, district administrator Arnaldo Major told Agence France Presse.
"At three o clock in the morning, Renamo attacked the police force. The commander of the Renamo force died and four police officers," he said, adding that the rebel commander went by the name of Rasta Mazement.
"They came armed and in uniform," said Major, adding that eight police officers, one female civilian and an unknown number of Renamo supporters were wounded.
Renamo admitted carrying out the attack and said it was in retaliation for a tear-gas laden police raid on their offices hours before, which resulted in 15 arrests.
"It was a retaliation by our men to what they did yesterday," Renamo's Defence and Security Chief, Ossufo Momad told AFP.
"Renamo is tired of persecution, humiliations, repression, dictatorship and slavery," he said.
Ossufo accused the police of "conducting a terrorist attack" and claimed the female civilian reported wounded by police was in fact killed in the police raid on Wednesday.
The police attack, he said, "resulted in the death of an honest citizen, resulting from a bazooka shell that fell on her home."
The fate of the woman could not be independently verified.
Tensions between the Frelimo-led government and Renamo have peaked ahead of local elections set for November, which Renamo has threatened to disrupt.
The two groups fought a bitter 15-year civil war that resulted in the deaths of as many as one million people.
Late last year, long-time Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama set up a bush camp in the nearby Gorongosa mountains, where he began retraining former guerrilla fighters.
Speaking to AFP, he threatened a return the country to war unless government met his demands for a renegotiation of the terms of the 1992 peace accord.
The government recently appears to appears to have hardened its position in the face of Renamo's threats.
"If Renamo continues to overstep the line, we will have no alternative but to take measures to guarantee calm and public order," Deputy Interior Minister Jose Mandra was quoted Wednesday as saying by independent daily O Pais.
Source: Agence France Presse
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