The Mozambican Peace Process in Perspective
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A ccor d An International Review of Peace Initiatives “Resource material – such as Accord – is of great help for those of us working in this field” Bethuel Abdu Kiplagat, Sudan Working Group, All African Council of Churches The Accord Series Process Peace The Mozambican Accord: An International Review of Peace Initiatives is published by Conciliation Resources The Mozambican Peace (CR), a London-based NGO concerned with supporting community peace building in Africa, the South Pacific and around the world. It provides detailed narrative and analysis Process on specific war and peace processes, combining readability with practical relevance. Accord’s readers work in governments, non-governmental and inter-governmental organisations in the fields of conflict resolution, human rights, relief and development. Its in Perspective appeal should extend, however, to anyone with a general interest in its themes including academic researchers, armed opposition groups and journalists. This issue of Accord was part-financed by the the UK Department for International Development and the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. Articles from this issue will also be published, in Portugese, in the Arquivo series published by the Arquivo Historico in Maputo. The Mozambican Peace Process in Perspective Five years on from the Rome accords, Mozambique remains politically stable despite formidable levels of poverty and social dislocation. For those seeking to address armed conflict elsewhere, the country’s negotiation process and the lasting agreements reached merit close study. This issue returns to key aspects of the Mozambican peace process. It shows how the initiatives driving the parties towards a negotiated settlement were diverse and complex and that the importance of each varied greatly through time. It also illustrates how the ending of the Cold War, the transition to majority rule in South Africa Features: and other unexpected developments added vital momentum to the Mozambican transition. In emphasising dynamism, unpredictability and the broader historical context, Complete text of the General the issue highlights the difficulties of ‘crafting’ political settlements to armed conflict. At Peace Agreement and other the same time, it underlines that key forces favouring peace exist at all levels of societies which can and should be harnessed. primary documents Issue 3 / 1998 Back issues Plus background articles and Liberia, Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Cambodia analysis on: Issues for release in 1999 Philippines/Mindanao, Georgia/ Abkhazia, Northern Ireland Regional Diplomacy Price: £12.50 or $25 (see inside for order details) Church Mediation The full text of all published Accords can be found on our website: www.c-r.org Financial Incentives Healing & Reconstruction Edited by Jeremy Armon, Dylan Hendrickson and Alex Vines Conciliation Resources London Issue 3 / 1998 An International Review of Peace Initiatives The Mozambican Peace Process in Perspective Published by Conciliation Resources, London, 1998 (Reprinted 1999, 2012) In association with Arquivo Historico, Maputo, Mozambique Mozambican Peace Process in Perspective Contents 4 Acknowledgements/Acronyms 5 Preface 9 Map of Mozambique 10 Historical Context: War and Peace in Mozambique Martin Rupiya 18 Ideological Shifts, Economic Imperatives: Southern African States and the Mozambican Peace Process Fernando Gonçalves 26 A Calling for Peace: Christian Leaders and the Quest for Reconciliation in Mozambique Dínis S. Sengulane and Jaime Pedro Gonçalves 34 Primary texts of the Mozambican Peace Process 35 The Nkomati Talks 38 The Nairobi Talks The Rome Process 40 General Peace Agreement 61 Other Texts 66 The Business of Peace: ‘Tiny’ Rowland, Financial Incentives and the Mozambican Settlement Alex Vines 75 Sealing the Past, Facing the Future: Trauma Healing in Rural Mozambique Alcinda Honwana 82 Chronology of War and Peace in Mozambique 89 Key Actors in the War and Peace Process 98 Further Reading 100 Contributors 102 The Accord Series and Order Form 104 Conciliation Resources Accord Page 3 Acknowledgements Acronyms Series Editor: Jeremy Armon AACC All Africa Council of Churches AIM Mozambique News Agency Issue Editors: Alex Vines and Dylan ANC African National Congress Hendrickson CCM Christian Council of Mozambique Programme Advisor: Andy Carl CIO Central Intelligence Organisation (Rhodesia) Contributors: João Paulo Borges Coelho, Alcinda CR Conciliation Resources Honwana, Fernando Gonçalves, Jaime Pedro CSC Supervisory and Monitoring Gonçalves, Pier Maria Mazzola, Martin Rupiya, Commission Dínis Sengulane FADM Armed Forces for the Defence of Mozambique Sales and Distribution: Leah Wedmore FAM Mozambique Armed Forces FLS Front Line States Design and Layout: Lylaani Dixon FPLM Popular Forces for the Liberation of Mozambique (later Local Partner Agency: Arquivo Historico, FAM) Maputo, Mozambique Frelimo Mozambique Liberation Front GPA General Peace Agreement Special thanks to: Jocelyn Alexander, Rose Bell, GD Dynamising Committees Paul Gifford, Reginald Green, Jeremy Grest, ICRC International Committee of the Margaret Hall, Joe Hanlon, Steve Kibble, Gary Red Cross Littlejohn, David Lord, Guus Meijer, William IMF International Monetary Fund Minter, Malyn Newitt and Anthony OMahony JVC Joint Verification Committee MID Military Intelligence Directorate for reviewing early drafts of articles. To the UK (South Africa) Department for International Development and MNR Mozambique National the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs for their Resistance (later Renamo) financial support toAccord: Mozambique. Also to OAU Organisation of African Unity the Mozambique News Agency, London and the UNDP United Nations Development Programme Nederlands Instituut voor Zuidelijk Afrika for ONUMOZ United Nations Operation in providing photographs. Mozambique Renamo Mozambique National Cover Photo: A father poses with his child at Resistance the Savane accommodation centre for mutilated SADCC Southern Africa Development Renamo veterans. Co-ordination Conference Credit: Ernst Schade/Panos Pictures SADF South African Defence Force SISE State Information and Security Copyright ©1998 Service Conciliation Resources SNASP National Service for Public 173 Upper Street Security UN United Nations London Nl 1RG, United Kingdom UNITA National Union for the Total Tel: +44-(0)20 7359 7728 Independence of Angola Fax: +44-(0)20 7359 4081 USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics e-mail: [email protected] WCC World Council of Churches Website: www.c-r.org ZANLA Zimbabwean National Liberation Army IBSN 1365-0742 ZANU Zimbabwe African National Union Permission is granted for reproduction and use ZNA Zimbabwe National Army of these materials for educational purposes. Please cite the source (Accord and Conciliation Resources) and notify us of use. Accord Page 4 Mozambican Peace Process in Perspective Preface ince the early 1980s, Mozambique Stepping Stones to a Durable has undergone a, series of Settlement remarkable transitions. Where powerful neighbours once strived S Martin Rupiya’s introductory Historical to destabilise the country, they now seek Context piece argues that attempts to resolve to guarantee and gain from its stability. Mozambique’s civil war need to be understood Commercial interests long helped to drive with reference to the broader historical and Mozambique’s destructive war, but later external context in which the post-colonial bank-rolled efforts to end it. The churches, state was formed and sought to develop. In the once were marginalised from state affairs, years following Mozambican independence subsequently came to play a key role in in 1975, government attempts to consolidate reconciling the warring parties. Guerrilla power and legitimacy created significant warfare and terror tactics were key opposition grievances among many Mozambicans, strategies, yet the former rebels operate today especially in the rural areas. With Rhodesia in the mainstream of parliamentary politics. and, later, South Africa bent on exploiting Where a luta continua (the struggle continues) and exacerbating these tensions, the principal was the government’s Marxist battle-cry, its drivers of Mozambique’s war moved beyond rhetoric is now infused with political and its borders. Only a decade and a half later economic liberalism. would conditions finally be right for a workable, intra-Mozambican settlement of Five years on from the negotiated settlement the conflict. which brought to a close 30 years of near- continuous warfare in Mozambique, the The gradual evolution of the Mozambican country remains remarkably stable. The peace process and the roles played by key transitions under-pinning this stability merit national and international actors are detailed close study by those with an interest in how in the Chronology and Key Actors sections armed conflicts in other countries can be towards the back of the issue. The primary prevented or resolved. While recognising that texts of the political settlement are laid Mozambique’s story is by no means complete, out in the centre pages. Broadly speaking, this issue of Accord documents its slow retreat Mozambique’s transition from war to peace from war, drawing on the benefits of hindsight can be broken down into five phases, the last and a variety of local perspectives. The articles of which is ongoing. highlight that the 1992 settlement, while made possible by the ending of the Cold War The first phase was between 1983 and 1985 and the demise of apartheid, was ultimately when the Frelimo government first