From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:MOZAMBIQUE: DISPLACED PERSONS DO NOT WANT TO GO HOME
Date: Fri, 6 Nov 1992 03:51:53 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: MOZAMBIQUE: DISPLACED PERSONS DO NOT WANT TO GO HOME


an inter press service feature

by basilio langa

maputo, oct 28 (ips) -- ''they say the war has ended but
what about the mines buried round our coconut trees?'' asks
23-year-old marta chale, driven by war from her home to refuge
here six years ago.

chale, a native of homoine in southern mozambique, told ips
she survived the 1987 massacre by members of the rebel
mozambique national resistance (renamo) in the town.

however, her parents and five other members of the family
were not so lucky.

citizens like marta are still not encouraged by the oct. 4
peace accord signed between president joaquim chissano and
renamo leader in rome, italy, to end a devastating 17-year-long
civil war.

''i can't go home because all my family is gone. all my
relatives were killed and i'm the only survivor. if i go back,
where will i live and with who?'' asks veronica massingue, a 34-
year-old woman from massinga.

the possibility of villagers staying permanently in the
cities even when peace returns is worrying the government which
repeatedly calls on the displaced people to go back to their
original areas, promising them support.

''the government will not force the displaced back to the
countryside, but aims to make them understand that their return will
facilitate a support programme'', said minister of agriculture
alexandre zandamela.

mozambique is a basically agricultural country with a family
sector-based economy. of its estimated 15.6 million population,
20 percent are displaced people and live in neighbouring
countries and city suburbs.

in maputo, the mozambique capital, for example, the
population has risen from 500,000 inhabitants at independence in
1975 to about two million in 1992, largely as a result of the
high concentration of displaced people on the city outskirts.

a u.n. study shows that even with the end of the war, jobs
will still be difficult to find for displaced persons who refuse
to return to the rural areas. (more/ips)


mozambique: displaced (2)

one such displaced person is felizimina mboca from manhica,
75 km north of here, who fled a renamo base after eight months
of captivity.

her arrest followed the killing of her husband by renamo in
1989. ''we had 12 sons, five of whom died. one of the oldest
emigrated to south africa and the other was captured by
renamo'', she says.

she never gets news of them.

mboca lives with her five children in a thatched hut and
supports them by selling sweets and cakes, a business she says
brings in nothing.

''i just wait hoping someone will pass by, feel sorry and
offer money'', she says. ''they say the war has ended but i
don't believe it''.

mboca's hut is located in a place that until a few years ago
served as a rubbish site, transformed today into a suburb for
thousands of displaced persons.

more than 250 displaced families occupy a crumbling building
in the capital that was once the headquarters of the colonial
political police, the pide.

''i lost many relatives because of the war. i don't even know
how many, because my father had four wives and each one had many
children'', says marta sabone de massinga, who does not want
to go home.

apart from the loss of relations, the prevailing hostile
situation between government forces and the former rebels will
for a long time discourage displaced persons from returning
home, despite the hunger and trying conditions in the city.
(end/ips/bl/rw/ro/apc/92)