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Seeking Peace in Mozambique
| Article
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19081 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1991 |
3,007 Words |
| Author
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David Hoile
David Hoile is a London-based political consultant and the
author of Mozambique: A Nation in Crisis. |
Afonso Dhlakama's appearance and personality starkly contradict the negative image that has been projected in much of the media of both himself and his movement, the Resistencia Nacional Mozambicana (the Mozambican National Resistance or Renamo). He is relaxed, good-humored and patient, a man deeply committed to the creation of a democratic Mozambique.
The incumbent Frelimo administration in Mozambique was installed in power in 1975, without the benefit of elections, by the hastily departing Portuguese, despite the existence of several other equally legitimate black Mozambican political parties and movements. The Mozambican civil war, now in its 13th year, was triggered by Frelimo's subsequent attempts to both destroy all political opposition and introduce a doctrinaire Marxist one-party state.
Growing out of a handful of disillusioned former Frelimo members and escaped political prisoners, Renamo now claims more than 25,000 guerrillas active in all 10 of Mozambique's provinces--some of them operating as semiconventional battalions. Almost half of Renamo's political leadership, including President Dhlakama and many of its military commanders, are former members of Frelimo.
For Dhlakama, Frelimo's desperate attempts to introduce political and economic change in Mozambique over the last year or so have been forced upon a very reluctant government. He doubts the sincerity of Frelimo in either the reform or negotiation process, citing the massive Frelimo and Zimbabwean military offensive against Renamo on the eve of the third round of peace talks scheduled for October in Rome. Frelimo's hesitance to discuss the implementation of any political reform in negotiations with Renamo is also viewed with suspicion by its opponents.
Dhlakama and Renamo are undoubtedly key to any resolution of the Mozambican situation. His pro-Western movement controls well over half and probably nearer to two-thirds of the country, the Frelimo government only really exercising authority in the major urban areas and one or two rural areas and one or two rural pockets. The internationalization of the conflict has been a disturbing facet of Mozambique's problems. Some 35,000 Zimbabweans, 8,000 Tanzanians, as well as Zambian and Malawian military units--plus Soviet advisers and British army instructors--are supporting the Frelimo military effort.
The Mozambican economy has been wrecked by war, famine, and Frelimo's disastrous economic policies. Frelimo
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