From: Muff.Andersson@p35.f26.n7101.z5.FIDONET.ORG (Muff Andersson)
Subject: MOZAMBIQUE: Luke-warm Response to Peace Accord
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 19:56:17 GMT

 * Originally by Muff Andersson, 5:7101/26.35
 * Originally to Citypress, 5:7101/26
 * Originally dated 12 Oct 1992, 14:27

 * Original to: web:aiacan

cc: web:aiacan, AIAZIM

S921007.MOZ

MOZAMBIQUE: Luke-warm Response to Peace Accord

Maputo, October 12, 1992 (AIA/Ruth Ansah Ayisi and Basilio Langa)
-- Local reaction to the signing in Rome of the October 4 peace
accord has been guarded.

The agreement between Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano and
Renamo rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama came after two years of
drawn-out negotiations and last minute differences which
threatened to disrupt the historic occasion. It was witnessed by
several southern African leaders and broadcast live over Radio
Mozambique.

But October 4 was like any other lazy Sunday afternoon in Maputo.
The quiet streets mirrored people's attitude to the peace accord.
While most admitted it was a major breakthrough, all thought it
was too early to celebrate the end of the war.

Mozambicans have had their hopes raised and dashed many times
since direct negotiations began more than two years ago. Even the
limited cease-fire agreement along the strategic transport
routes, the Limpopo and the Beira corridors linking Zimbabwe to
the Indian Ocean, was repeatedly violated by Renamo.

The signing of the accord three days late did little to build up
people's confidence. Two months ago Chissano and Dhlakama
promised to sign the peace agreement on October 1. But the rebel
leader arrived late in Rome, making fresh demands -- including
the right to control the zones currently under his occupation.

According to reports, despite his arriving late with last minute
objections to the accord, Dhlakama further disrupted the intense
last minute negotiations for personal reasons -- he wanted to
meet his wife at the airport.

"This man is not serious," said a young man listening to his
radio in the street. "He just wants power, at the expense of our
lives."

A young mother of two commented: "We need to wait till after the
elections. If Renamo lose, they might just go back to the bush.
Look at the situation in Angola."

In an attempt to bring peace to the country, the government made
an uneasy compromise, allowing Renamo to maintain its current
structures in the areas it holds. But a joint commission is to be
established to provide a link between Renamo occupied areas and
the central state administration until the first multiparty
general elections in about one year's time.

Yet though the peace accord has been signed, most people feel
there are still too many unknowns.

Nobody knows how much control the two warring sides have over
their respective armies. Many rebels are thought to be youngsters
who have had little formal education and who know only violence
as a way of life.

On the government side, many soldiers have been forced to serve
longer than their official terms, in some cases without pay for
months on end. This has lead to a wave of mutinies over the
country in recent months. Just a day before the accord was
signed, Radio Mozambique reported that government troops in the
remote town of Machaze in the central province of Manica mutinied
for the second time in a fortnight. They seized a light aircraft
belonging to the French humanitarian organisation Medicins Sans
Fronieres (Medicine without Frontiers), along with its two
passengers, a doctor and a nurse.

With peace in the offing, the depth of discontent is now manifest
as soldiers, veterans, war-wounded and demobilised troops press
for higher wages or back pay long in arrears from a government
that is broke. The veterans accuse the Frelimo leadership of
forgetting their old comrades from the independence war against
Portugal and excluding them from the benefits of Frelimo rule.

The pensions paid by the government to the veterans and
war-wounded range from 5,000 to 18,000 meticais (US$2-7) a month.
The minimum industrial wage is currently 40,000 meticais (US$15)
a month.

Among the incidents which have taken place are the following:

* At the end of July, a commando unit blocked the country's main
north-south road, about 80 kilometres north of Maputo, demanding
three months' back pay. About 150 soldiers from the Maputo
garrison joined the revolt, saying they had not been paid for
nine months. The July mutinies ended when the defence ministry
paid the mutineers their back wages.

* On August 11, hundreds of veterans and war-wounded blocked the
economically strategic South Africa-Swaziland road demanding
increased pensions and benefits. "We want our problems resolved
before Dhlakama arrives here," declared one of the protestors.
The blockade ended 24 hours later when police dispersed the
protestors by opening fire, killing one of the war-wounded and
injuring two others. Angry colleagues deposited the body at the
offices of the central committee of the ruling Frelimo party.

* In Quelimane, the Zambezi provincial capital, a unit of
veterans took over the water treatment and pumping station on
August 25 and cut off the water supply to the city. The unit had
already given an ultimatum to the provincial government,
demanding 11 months in back wages and access to bank credit. The
veterans also threatened to prevent the distribution of food aid,
which is landed at Quelimane port, to districts in the interior
of Zambezi.

* Early in September, the veterans in Manica province, bordering
Zimbabwe, occupied an electricity sub-station and cut off power
to the capital, Chimoio.

* A group of soldiers, demanding their pay, also briefly
blockaded the main road from Beira port to Zimbabwe, which runs
through the middle of Manica.

Sorting out the problems of these soldiers and veterans is going
to be a major battle for Chissano.

The other big question mark remains over the independent peasant
militia known as the Naparamas who fought Renamo in the northern
provinces of Zambezia and Nampula. It is not clear yet whether
they have agreed to lay down their traditional weapons.

A communique issued by the Mozambican defence ministry after the
October 4 accord has ordered all units of the armed forces to
refrain from offensive operations. Likewise, the Renamo leader
said in Rome he would give orders to his men to stop fighting
within 24 hours. This means the guns should have stopped firing
from October 5.

An official cease-fire, however, will only come into  effect when
the Mozambican parliament ratifies the peace agreement.

A cease-fire opens up a whole new challenge of reconstruction.

Mozambique has been devastated by the war and is now by many
estimates the poorest nation in the world. More than 70 percent
of the country's 15.7 million people are living in absolute
poverty.

And like the rest of southern Africa, Mozambicans are battling
against the worst drought in living memory, threatening the lives
of all its people. Only if the cease-fire holds will aid workers
be able to reach some three million famine victims held in Renamo
areas.

Yet critical to lasting peace is reconciliation after so many
years of bloodshed. It will not be easy.

Albertina Chiuse, a mother of six children, remembers vividly
when Renamo came to her village in the district of Chibuto in the
southern district of Gaza, where the rebels have been known to
carry out brutal humiliations like cutting off ears and noses and
castrating men.

"Renamo killed my brother and my three nephews and they stole all
my possessions. We had cattle, goats and chickens -- but Renamo
took them all," says Chiuse.
"I don't want Renamo to come to my village.  We won't kill them,
but we'll never trust them."

ENDS (1,200 WORDS)
 

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