From: wsargeant@IGC.APC.ORG (Winslow L. Sargeant)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: IPS:Mozambique, peasants using mines, g'
Date: 30 Jul 92 17:34:34 GMT

/* Written 12:09 am  Jul 30, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "MOZAMBIQUE: PEASANTS USING MINES, G" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Science & Industry; Agriculture
Title: MOZAMBIQUE: PEASANTS USING MINES, GRENADES AGAINST RENAMO


an inter press service feature

by gil lauriciano

mabalane, mozambique, jul 27 (ips) -- peasants in the mabalane
district are using anti-personnel mines and grenades to protect
themselves, their fields and wells against attacks by the rebel
mozambique national resistance (renamo), turning the banks of
the limpopo river into a battlefield.

''since they suffer greatly from hunger out in the bush, they
(renamo) come to our fields at night and steal everything'',
says leonor macamo, pointing to her maize and vegetable plots on
the south bank of the limpopo river.

the river, one of the most important in southern mozambique,
is now completely dry and the people say it has not rained here
for almost two years.

for about two years now, mabalane peasants have been
volunteering for paramilitary training, joining the local
militias and organising patrols to protect their villages
against possible attacks by renamo.

''the rebels were looting livestock, clothing and utensils,
destroying pumps and tractors, killing officials, burning down
communal villages and defending this on the grounds that they
oppose marxism-leninism'', marques walane, the district director
of agriculture here, told ips.

renamo has been fighting against the government since
mozambique's independence from portugal jun. 25, 1975. more than
900,000 people have died in the war while six million others
have been displaced.

now, as the drought intensifies and both food and drinking
water supplies continue to dwindle, the rebels seem undeterred
by patrols and the peasants have had to employ new techniques to
keep renamo out of their fields and wells.

at the end of every day, macamo's husband, carmone sitoe,
plants a number of grenades around their three ha of land. the
grenades are tied to a thread hidden on the ground. this is tied
to the detonaters and a slight tug is sufficient to detonate the
grenade.

sitoe removes his grenades early every morning before he
resumes work on his fields.

''this method helps. in february they came here, thinking it
would be the same as it was before. but in the first field they
tried to plunder, four of them were killed by the grenades.
apart from that, our forces were alerted and began to pursue the
rest of them'', sitoe told ips. (more/ips)


mozambique: grenades (2)

according to sitoe, the mines and grenades come from various
sources. ''a lot of men around here belong to the militia.
sometimes we capture these weapons when we attack renamo bases.
other times, well, people can arrange supplies''.

events in mabalane are increasingly beginning to show the
17-year civil war has been compounded by the drought currently
gripping the entire southern africa sub-region, making hunger
the principal motive for confrontation.

mozambique, with a population of about 15 million, will
require more than 1.3 million tonnes of grain to feed an
estimated four million needy people between 1992 and 1993.

already, severe food shortages are threatening the lives of
an estimated 2.7 million people as current cereal stocks are
insufficient to meet the requirements of all the country's 10
provinces.

given the gravity of the drought situation, the u.n. chief
representative in mozambique, peter simkin, emphasises there
should be no discrimination in the distribution of humanitarian
assistance to mozambique.

''even the bandits should be fed'', says simkin. this is the
only way to ensure the ''food trains'' sent to drought-hit areas
without military escorts will not become vulnerable to attacks
by ''third forces''.

among the peasants of mabalane the drought and war have also
introduced a new form of social organisation.

''most of the peasants here have to work for those farmers
who own irrigation pumps in exchange for receiving water from
them'', says walane.

with the failure of the rains, the authorities have
distributed land along the banks of the river to the more than
22,000 people who live in the district. each peasant received a
quarter of ha, but those who own pumps received three ha.

''from monday to saturday, i work four days on the field of
the man who owns the pump, and two days on my own field. on
those two days he pays me with water to irrigate my plot, and
also to take home'', matilde mathe told ips.
(end/ips/gl/pf/tvh/apc/ar/92)


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