War threat in Mozambique

Twenty years after laying down his weapons, Mozambican civil war commander Afonso Dhlakama has said he is willing to provoke a fresh bloodbath and divide the country if the government does not meet his demands.

Speaking from his base in the Mozambican bush, where he has gathered several hundred armed supporters, the former anti-communist guerrilla vowed a return to violence if the government did not share the country's wealth and reform the electoral system.

"I am training my men up and, if we need to, we will leave here and destroy Mozambique," said Dhlakama, who directed an insurgency against the Frelimo government that resulted in the deaths of a million Mozambicans between 1977 and 1992. Stressing that he wanted a peaceful solution, Dhlakamanevertheless warned that he was not afraid of derailing the country's economic boom.

"If it is necessary, we can go backwards. We prefer a poor country than to have people eating from our pot."

Mozambican police said yesterday they did not believe Dhlakama would make good on his threat to return the country to war.

"Mr Dhlakama is not a child. He is an adult and an adult thinks of the consequences of his actions. That is why we think he will not do anything. He has children and a wife," police spokesman Pedro Cossa said.

"We don't believe he will go to war because he has promised several times that he will not make war, that he wants peace."

Clayson Monyela, a spokesman for the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, said: "The Southern African Development Community [ deal with] matters of security in the region. South Africa will deal with the matter within the context of the SADC."

Though the Mozambican authorities have played down Dhlakama's threats, the government has sent a riot squad detail to the Gorongosa area, where Dhlakama and his men are holed up.

Cossa insisted the detail had been despatched to ensure Dhlakama's safety.

Earlier this year the force launched an assault on a group of Renamo militants who had camped outside their former party headquarters in the northern city of Nampula, killing four.

Mozambique's civil war ended in 1992, with Dhlakama and Armando Guebuza, now the country's president, agreeing to the Rome General Peace Accords, which paved the way for Mozambique's resources-fuelled growth.

Dhlakama has long been disgruntled. He insists that his former Renamo guerillas have had enough of the government's "robbery" of the country's resources.

Renamo is still the official opposition, with 51 of the 250 seats in parliament, but its support has dwindled since 1999. - Sapa-AFP, staff reporter