July 2001 Africa News Headlines

MAPUTO - Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and rebel leader-turned opposition chief Afonso Dhlakama are in a new political standoff, this time over two ruling party members held by Dhlakama.

Dhlakama ordered the two detained last week in the central province of Manica, claiming they were sabotaging his rallies.

He ordered Adamos Judas and his companion identified only as Madoda, both members of Chissano's Frelimo party, held after accusing them of preventing people from attending his rallies in the district of Chibabava.

Renamo alleges that the two were asking people to produce licenses for their bicycles, the main means of transport in the area, on the day Dhlakama was to hold a rally.

This, Renamo claims, forced people to stay away since most had not paid their levy.

Chissano's party considers the two hostages.

The president on Friday told journalists that Dhlakama had "committed crime, and this is condemnable."

Legal action will be taken against the former rebels for their acts and to secure the release of the hostages, Chissano said.

Chissano and Dhlakama were on opposite sides of civil war that lasted 16 years, until the two agreed to a 1992 peace deal that has turned their nation into an African success story.

Still impoverished, the peace deal has held despite disagreements between the two.

The economy has grown by an average of 10 percent a year since the war ended, until devastating floods last year slowed that growth.

But the two leaders have had estranged relations since December 1999, when Renamo claimed that results in a general election were rigged.

Despite a Supreme Court verdict last year endorsing the polls' legitimacy, Dhlakama refused to recognise the vote's outcome, in which he lost the presidency to Chissano and his party won a minority of seats in parliament.

The situation worsened in November when the opposition party staged violent protests against the election results.

Tensions rose when 83 Renamo supporters detained during the protests died in a jail cell in northern Mozambique.

Renamo wants Chissano to appoint governors from the opposition party in the six central and northern provinces where it won the most votes in the 1999 elections. - Nampa-Sapa-AFP

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