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- Path: sparky!uunet!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!sgi!cdp!hrcoord
- 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
- Sender: Notesfile to Usenet Gateway <notes@igc.apc.org>
- Message-ID: <1476700921@igc.apc.org>
- Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476700921:000:3422
- Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord Dec 28 12:39:00 1992
- Lines: 81
-
-
- 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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