From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Date: 28 Dec 92 12:39 PST
Subject: UN Brokers Rotten Peace in Mozambiq
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700921:000:3422
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Dec 28 12:39:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: UN Brokers Rotten Peace in Mozambiq

/* Written  7:55 pm  Dec 26, 1992 by ww@nyxfer.UUCP in igc:reg.africa */

Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


UN brokers rotten "peace" in Mozambique

By G. Dunkel

The United Nations Security Council has voted to send 4,250 
troops and 1,200 observers to Mozambique.  Their mission is 
described as peace-keeping--but it is a peace that is intended to
give legitimacy to the bloody mercenary army that has brought 
mayhem and massacres to Mozambique for 15 years.

The UN forces will supervise elections to be held some time next 
year. The Mozambican government of Joaquin Chissano reluctantly 
agreed to them last October after 15 years of relentless 
destruction carried out by RENAMO, a white racist-led mercenary 
force.

The UN forces will be responsible for overseeing the assembly, 
disarmament and demobilization of 110,000 government soldiers as 
well as of RENAMO forces. Another task is supposed to be 
reintegrating 5-6 million refugees and displaced persons out of a
total population of 18 million.

SOUTH AFRICAN PUPPETS

RENAMO was originally set up in 1976 by the racist Rhodesian 
government to attack Mozambique in retaliation for its support of
the liberation struggle of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). When the 
Rhodesian regime fell, South Africa took over the direction of 
RENAMO, providing logistical support and advanced military 
hardware.

Whether Rhodesia or South Africa was in charge, RENAMO engaged in
acts of wanton brutality and senseless destruction that were 
widely condemned. What RENAMO couldn't do, South Africa did 
itself. For example, South Africa, using advanced technology, 
lured the plane of Mozambican President Samora Machel into South 
African air space, where it crashed, killing him and a number of 
his closest advisers.

The UN brokered the same kind of deal earlier this year in 
Angola. There, however, the mercenary group UNITA--which was 
created and financed by South Africa and the U.S.--lost the 
election. It then attempted to win power through a military coup.

The Angolan government of the MPLA, which wrested independence 
from Portugal in 1974, won the election by politically arming its
cadres, uniting a majority of the progressive forces in the 
country, and vigorously going to the masses. When UNITA moved its
armed forces into the capital of Luanda to prepare for a coup, 
the MPLA called on all the veterans of the struggle against the 
Portuguese to take up arms again.

They drove UNITA out of Luanda, capturing a good fraction of its 
top leadership. UNITA is still threatening to re-ignite the civil
war in Angola, but it doesn't control Luanda.

RENAMO is very likely to follow the same strategy as UNITA: Try 
to win the election with the big bucks it gets from South Africa.
If RENAMO loses, it is likely to try to shoot its way to power. 
And judging by what happened in Angola, the imperialist Western 
countries that talk so much about peace will be egging it on.


(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)


 NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
 Modem: 718-448-2358  *  Internet: nytransfer@igc.apc.org

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