Afonso Dhlakama

Afonso Marceta Macacho Dhlakama (born 1 January 1953) is a Mozambican politician and the leader of RENAMO, an anti-communist guerrilla organization that fought the FRELIMO government in the Mozambican Civil War before signing a peace agreement and becoming an opposition political party in the early 1990s. Dhlakama was born in Mangunde, Sofala Province.

Mozambican Civil War

After RENAMO's first leader, André Matsangaissa, was killed by Mozambican government forces in 1979, Dhlakama became leader after a violent succession struggle, in which rival Orlando Cristina was assassinated. By 1984, Dhalakama was both commander in chief of RENAMO's forces and head of the governing body, the 12-member executive council. As leader of RENAMO Dhlakama sought to destabilize the FRELIMO government through guerilla and terrorist strategies. Under his command RENAMO reached the peak of its power, controlling large parts of the country, especially in the north and being able to carry out raids virtually anywhere outside the major cities. In its fight RENAMO was supported by conservative circles in some western countries, including the United States, the BRD and most importantly by the racist regimes of Rhodesia and South Africa to whom FRELIMO ruled Mozambique was a target due to its support of resistance movements within their countries. However, the end of the cold war, the collapse of Rhodesia's Smith regime and, most importantly, the transition taking place in South Africa eventually deprived RENAMO of its financial supporters and arms suppliers. Thus, RENAMO and FRELIMO, which had also lost its supporters from the eastern power block, finally signed a peace treaty in October 1992. RENAMO subsequently transformed itself into a legal political party under the continued leadership of Afonso Dhlakama.

War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity

Under Dhlakama's leadership RENAMO systematically committed war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of its destabilization strategy. These include mass killing, rape and mutilation of non-combatants during terroristic raids on villages and towns as well as systematically forcing civilians into RENAMO's employment. This was done by mass abduction, especially of children in order to abuse them as child soldiers. It is estimated that one third of RENAMO forces were child soldiers. But abducted people also had to serve RENAMO in administrative or public service functions in the areas it controlled. Refusing to work for RENAMO would be punished by heavy beating or even on the spot execution as were flight attempts. One particularly gruesome practice was the mutilation and killing of children left behind by escaped parents. Another way of using civilians for military purposes was the so called system of "Gandira“. This system especially affected the rural population in areas controlled by RENAMO and forced them, to fulfil three main tasks: 1) food production for RENAMO, 2) transport of goods and ammunition, 3) availability of women as sex slaves. Often women would be apprehended while out on the fields or fetching water and raped as a means to boost troop moral. Gandira caused wide-spread starvation among the rural population due to the little time left to produce food for themselves. This caused more and more persons to be bodily unable to endure the long transportation marches demanded from them. However falling behind on those marches resulted in severe beating and often execution. RENAMO crimes only gained worldwide public attention through the massacre of Homoine when RENAMO soldiers butchered 424 civilians including the patients of a hospital with guns and machetes during a raid on the rural town of Homoine. This incident prompted an investigation into RENAMO methods by US-State Department consultant Robert Gersony which finally put an end to right wing ambitions to bring about US-government support for RENAMO. The report describes that RENAMO's course of action in Homoine did not significantly differ from the tactics it normally employed in such raids. These methods are described in the report in the following way:

„The attack stage was sometimes reported to begin with what appeared to the inhabitants to be the indiscriminate firing of automatic weapons by a substantial force of attacking RENAMO combatants. […] Reportedly the Government soldiers aim their defensive fire at the attackers, while the RENAMO forces shoot indiscriminately into the village. In some cases refugees perceived that the attacking force had divided into three detachments: one conducts the military attack; another enters houses and removes valuables, mainly clothing, radios, food, pots and other possessions; a third moves through the looted houses with pieces of burning thatch setting fire to the houses in the village. There were several reports that schools and health clinics are typical targets for destruction. The destruction of the village as a viable entity appears to be the main objective of such attacks. This type of attack causes several types of civilian casualties. As is normal in guerrilla warfare, some civilians are killed in crossfire between the two opposing forces, although this tends in the view of the refugees to account for only a minority of the deaths. A larger number of civilians in these attacks and other contexts were reported to be victims of purposeful shooting deaths and executions, of axing, knifing, bayoneting, burning to death, forced drowning and asphyxiation, and other forms of murder where no meaningful resistance or defense is present. Eyewitness accounts indicate that when civilians are killed in these indiscriminate attacks, whether against defended or undefended villages, children, often together with mothers and elderly people, are also killed. Varying numbers of civilian victims in each attack were reported to be rounded up and abducted [...].“

Thus it appears the only difference between the Homoine massacre and RENAMO's usual methods was the size of the operation. Normally RENAMO would choose smaller, easier targets instead of attacking a town defended by some 90 government soldiers. The Mozambican civil war caused about 1000000 deaths and over five million refugees out of a total population of ca. 13-15 million at the time. Despite the massive scale and organized manner in which war crimes and crimes against humanity have been committed under his command, Dhlakama so far did not have to appear before a war crimes tribunal of any sort.

Post Civil War Activity

Dhlakama has competed as the RENAMO candidate in all three multiparty presidential elections held in Mozambique. In 1994, he was defeated by incumbent President and FRELIMO candidate Joaquim Chissano by a margin of 53.3% to 33.7%. He received 47.7% of the vote in the 1999 presidential election with Chissano capturing 52.3%. In the December 2004 presidential election, he was defeated by FRELIMO candidate Armando Guebuza, who received 63.7% of the vote to his 31.7%.

International observers to the elections criticized the fact that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) did not conduct entirely fair and transparent elections. They listed a whole range of serious shortcomings by the electoral authorities that benefited the ruling party FRELIMO. Some believe that the pronounced outcome of the parliamentary election and thus the distribution of seats in the National Assembly does not reflect the will of the Mozambican people.

Upon the creation of the Council of State, a body tasked with advising the President, Dklahama was included on the Council due to his role as leader of the opposition; he and the other members of the Council were sworn in on 23 December 2005. He said that he accepted his seat on the Council for the sake of national stability.

Dhlakama was injured in a car crash in Maputo on June 10, 2007. A RENAMO spokesman described the injuries as minor.

Although RENAMO was apparently weakened by the defection of Daviz Simango, who formed a new party, Dhlakama was re-elected for another five-year term as RENAMO leader on 22 July 2009 at a party congress in Nampula Province, defeating another candidate, Rogerio Francisco Joao. He was RENAMO's candidate in the October 2009 presidential election.

Dhlakama repeatedly threatened to reestablish RENAMO armed forces and to let the country "burn". In 2011 he stated that RENAMO was preparing a "revolution" to rid the government from power and establishing new barracks for this purpose.

Sources

• Special Report on Mozambique Elections by the Carter Center
• Final Report of the European Union Election Observation Mission