If keeping the peace as a UN "Blue Helmet" in Mozambique taught anything to Botswanan Corporal Tosten Basutlhi, 32, it was the folly of civil war. "It is really dangerous for a country to go into war, that is the main thing I will tell people back home," said Corporal Basutlhi. "We should always be aware that problems leading to war can start anywhere, even in Botswana."
Evidence of what civil war could do to a country was all around. During his eight months in Mozambique, the corporal had seen entire villages that were burned-out ruins, with their residents now living in camps with thousands of Mozambicans displaced by the fighting. They survived on food provided by the UN and international relief agencies. Mozambique, one of the world's poorest countries, was only a few hundred miles from Botswana, one of Africa's richest nations, but it seemed like another world.
The corporal's unit, nicknamed Mafetsakgang-"ultimate conflict busters," in the Tswana language-was part of the United Nations' 6,000-strong peacekeeping force. It was sent to Mozambique to maintain peace until the country's first-ever elections in October 1994. The Mafetsakgang unit, stationed at a barracks outside the central Mozambican town of Chimoio, was part of a Botswana Defense Force contingent of 350 soldiers protecting the Beira Corridor, a road, railway, and oil pipeline transport artery linking the hinterland of southern Africa to the Indian Ocean port of Beira. The unit's duties included working with the local police to set up armed patrols on the road during the day and occasionally at night. By the time the conflict busters left, they had become the most popular foreign troops among Mozambican civilians.
The 16-year civil war in Mozambique had come to an end two years before, when the government of President Joaquim Chissano and the Mozambique Liberation Front (RENAMO) rebel movement signed a peace agreement in Rome. The UN operation in Mozambique began in December 1992 and became one of the world body's most successful international missions. The government and rebel armies were demobilized, the general elections went off almost without incident and RENAMO accepted its defeat at the polls.
Prior experience-Botswanan troops had participated in the Somalia mission, Operation Restore Hope-had taught the Mafetsakgang unit that international peacekeeping operations can be anything but peaceful. Yet that did not dissuade the troopers from volunteering for a tour of duty in Mozambique. "Most of the guys want to participate in these UN peacekeeping operations," said Lieutenant Colonel Duke Masilo, the contingent's 34 year-old commander. "It is exciting to be stationed abroad, and prestige comes by working with the armies of the world."
The peacekeeping operation in Mozambique, unlike the one in Somalia, was a quiet affair. Relations between civilians and the UN peacekeepers in Chimoio (the capital of Manica province) soured, however, in the wake of allegations that Italian soldiers were involved with child prostitutes. The mood changed when the Botswanan forces moved to Chimoio from Zambezia province.
Tight discipline among the troops and a policy of getting involved with local sports and charity groups earned popular admiration for the Mafetsakgang unit. "We are very friendly with the Mozambicans. We are Africans, like them. We are always playing sports, and we have been helping the disabled," said Private Donald Phale. "It is very good for the peacekeeping troops to work on the social side so they can be hand in hand with the civilians," added Corporal Twodays Motingwa. "That way civilians can get used to soldiers."
In July 1994, Lieutenant Colonel Masilo and his men organized a soccer tournament for four Mozambican teams. "We really scored points with the tournament because we provided every player with a uniform, which they were able to keep," he said. "Each team won a trophy no matter how they played, because we did not want anyone to feel like a loser."
It was the self-discipline shown by the Mafetsakgang troops, however, that won the highest praise from the Mozambicans. The Botswanan soldiers were not allowed to drink in public or visit local discotheques. "Things like bars and going to discos, it is a very bad habit for a soldier," noted Corporal Motingwa, a 13-year veteran of the Botswana Defense Force. "These are things that will affect you and lead to bad behavior."
The Botswanan conflict busters, for their part, left expressing admiration for the Mozambicans they had come to help. "What impressed me the most was the way the people plow with their hands. They have no tractors or anything like in Botswana," said Sergeant Oitshupile Pule, who also served in Somalia. "The Mozambican people are very tough."
By: Karl Maier (excerpt from A Look at Some Peacekeepers), from: A Global Affair: An Inside Look at the United Nations, published by Jones & Janello, copyright 1995, all rights reserved.
