[h=1]Mozambique: Army Finds Dhlakama's Kenyan Passport[/h]
Maputo When, on Monday, the Mozambican army occupied the old base of the former rebel movement Renamo in the central district of Maringue, it came across a historical curiosity - a passport given to Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama by the Kenyan authorities in the late 1980s.
The photo on the passport is clearly that of a young Dhlakama. He was using the false name Alfonsi Muanacato Barao, and the passport described him as a Kenyan businessman. The stamps in the passport indicated that Dhlakama had used it to visit western countries such as Sweden, Italy, France and the US.
Doubtless the passport had been discarded, or forgotten about, in the Maringue base shortly after the 1992 peace accord, since then Dhlakama no longer needed to travel under an assumed name.
The passport confirms stories that AIM wrote in 1991 and 1992 about Kenyan collaboration with Renamo, based on documents which the armed forces seized in April 1991 from what Renamo described as a secret presidential base at Nhamagodoa, also in Maringue district. These showed that support by the regime of the then Kenyan President, Daniel Arap Moi, for Renamo dated from at least 1988.
Contacts between the Kenyan authorities and Dhlakama went via the then Renamo Information Secretary, Francisco Nota Moises, who was based in Canada, but had previously lived for many years in Kenya, and a Zimbabwean Christian fundamentalist missionary, working in Malawi, named Rod Hein, who called himself Joseph.
On 9 May 1988, Joseph relayed a message to Dhlakama from Nota Moises, saying I am now in Kenya and have had meetings with the government of Kenya. The President of Kenya (Arap Moi) has asked me to be in contact between him and you (Dhlakama). The men here in Kenya trust me, and they want the operation to be very secret.
Arap Moi told Nota Moises that he has the pleasure of inviting the President of Renamo to go to Kenya. All arrangements will be made in confidence and top secrecy.
Nota advised Dhlakama not to tell anyone else such as your friends in the south (i.e. South Africa) or in the USA.
We want this operation to be successful and secret.
On 17 May, another message from Nota said the Kenyan authorities had decided to help Renamo as much as possible because of interference from Frelimo (this may be a reference to the friendly relations between Mozambique and the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni).
The Kenyans advised Dhlakama to make a strong statement expressing your willingness to settle the conflict peacefully, if the other side is willing to negotiate. Nota added that Dhlakama should also appeal to foreign governments to set up such talks. The Kenyan authorities believe that this will give Kenya and other foreign governments the excuse to talk openly to Renamo.
Hein/Joseph added the message Kenya requests Your Excellency to present a budget of needs, financial and material. If this can be presented on your arrival, it will help matters move more quickly. Kenya is determined that it wants to be of valid assistance.
These early contacts bore fruit later, and Dhlakama did indeed visit Nairobi.
Three years later, a letter, dated 20 December 1991, from Dhlakama to Arap Moi, was leaked to AIM, which thanked the Kenyan President for sending a delegation to a Renamo congress earlier that month inside a rebel-held part of central Mozambique, and invited the Kenyan government to send representatives to a meeting Renamo planned to hold in January with the Swazi authorities.
At the time this evidence of Renamo's links with Kenya was not taken very seriously. So it is encouraging to find evidence, in the ruins of a Renamo base, backing up stories that this news agency wrote over two decades ago.
source:allAfrica.com: Mozambique: Army Finds Dhlakama's Kenyan Passport
cc Geza Ulole, Rutashubanyuma, Jasusi, Kabaridi, Koborer, Nguruvi3, Ab-Titchaz
Maputo When, on Monday, the Mozambican army occupied the old base of the former rebel movement Renamo in the central district of Maringue, it came across a historical curiosity - a passport given to Renamo leader Afonso Dhlakama by the Kenyan authorities in the late 1980s.
The photo on the passport is clearly that of a young Dhlakama. He was using the false name Alfonsi Muanacato Barao, and the passport described him as a Kenyan businessman. The stamps in the passport indicated that Dhlakama had used it to visit western countries such as Sweden, Italy, France and the US.
Doubtless the passport had been discarded, or forgotten about, in the Maringue base shortly after the 1992 peace accord, since then Dhlakama no longer needed to travel under an assumed name.
The passport confirms stories that AIM wrote in 1991 and 1992 about Kenyan collaboration with Renamo, based on documents which the armed forces seized in April 1991 from what Renamo described as a secret presidential base at Nhamagodoa, also in Maringue district. These showed that support by the regime of the then Kenyan President, Daniel Arap Moi, for Renamo dated from at least 1988.
Contacts between the Kenyan authorities and Dhlakama went via the then Renamo Information Secretary, Francisco Nota Moises, who was based in Canada, but had previously lived for many years in Kenya, and a Zimbabwean Christian fundamentalist missionary, working in Malawi, named Rod Hein, who called himself Joseph.
On 9 May 1988, Joseph relayed a message to Dhlakama from Nota Moises, saying I am now in Kenya and have had meetings with the government of Kenya. The President of Kenya (Arap Moi) has asked me to be in contact between him and you (Dhlakama). The men here in Kenya trust me, and they want the operation to be very secret.
Arap Moi told Nota Moises that he has the pleasure of inviting the President of Renamo to go to Kenya. All arrangements will be made in confidence and top secrecy.
Nota advised Dhlakama not to tell anyone else such as your friends in the south (i.e. South Africa) or in the USA.
We want this operation to be successful and secret.
On 17 May, another message from Nota said the Kenyan authorities had decided to help Renamo as much as possible because of interference from Frelimo (this may be a reference to the friendly relations between Mozambique and the Ugandan President, Yoweri Museveni).
The Kenyans advised Dhlakama to make a strong statement expressing your willingness to settle the conflict peacefully, if the other side is willing to negotiate. Nota added that Dhlakama should also appeal to foreign governments to set up such talks. The Kenyan authorities believe that this will give Kenya and other foreign governments the excuse to talk openly to Renamo.
Hein/Joseph added the message Kenya requests Your Excellency to present a budget of needs, financial and material. If this can be presented on your arrival, it will help matters move more quickly. Kenya is determined that it wants to be of valid assistance.
These early contacts bore fruit later, and Dhlakama did indeed visit Nairobi.
Three years later, a letter, dated 20 December 1991, from Dhlakama to Arap Moi, was leaked to AIM, which thanked the Kenyan President for sending a delegation to a Renamo congress earlier that month inside a rebel-held part of central Mozambique, and invited the Kenyan government to send representatives to a meeting Renamo planned to hold in January with the Swazi authorities.
At the time this evidence of Renamo's links with Kenya was not taken very seriously. So it is encouraging to find evidence, in the ruins of a Renamo base, backing up stories that this news agency wrote over two decades ago.
source:allAfrica.com: Mozambique: Army Finds Dhlakama's Kenyan Passport
cc Geza Ulole, Rutashubanyuma, Jasusi, Kabaridi, Koborer, Nguruvi3, Ab-Titchaz
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