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Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Feb. 15, 1996
issue of Workers World newspaper
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What Imperialism Has Done To Mozambique

By Deirdre Griswold

War always has an objective. The idea that wars develop spontaneously from innate aggression or personal anger is either very naive or a deliberate attempt to conceal the economic interests behind war.

Wars take a lot of planning, money, materiel and personnel. When they are accompanied by widespread atrocities, these too ultimately reflect a policy decision made on top.

One of the bloodiest recent wars took place in Mozambique. Estimates of the dead range as high as 200,000--in a country with only 18 million people.

A War To Re-Enslave Mozambique

The national-liberation movement Frelimo, committed to independence and socialism, took power in Mozambique in 1974--after rebellions took place in Portugal's African colonies and a democratic revolution toppled the fascist regime in Portugal.

At first, Frelimo made progress toward overcoming the terrible heritage of colonialism: poverty, lack of education and skills, abysmal underdevelopment.

But then the war started. A group called Renamo--openly trained by apartheid South Africans and covertly financed by U.S. right wingers--began systematically demolishing villages and rural-development programs.

Renamo killed peasants and forced young boys into its murderous army. It spread havoc wherever it went.

All this has been abundantly documented.

What was the war all about? Why were these ruthless outsiders so determined to kill the dream of a people who had suffered for over 400 years under colonialism and foreign domination?

Some recent developments prove that the motive of those behind Renamo was blatant capitalist greed. Just as the prospect of enormous profits drove the brutal slave traders two centuries ago, the lure of fortunes to be made drives their social heirs to commit equivalent crimes today.

And having a racist ideology makes it easier for them to dismiss the gruesome consequences of their acts.

First The War, Then The Profits

Take James Blanchard III, a Texan, who is pushing the Mozambique government to agree to an Indian Ocean tourist "dream park" in what is now the Maputo Elephant Preserve and the adjoining Machangula Peninsula.

Into this magnificent, pristine area would come wealthy tourists, ferried by hovercraft from Maputo. There'd be a Mississippi steamboat with a floating hotel and casino. A chain of up-market lodges on the beaches and inland lakes.

Scuba-diving schools. Game-fishing expeditions. A train to carry tourists through a wonderland of wild game and marine life.

Blanchard would sink $800 million into this major tourist development--which gives an idea of how much he expects to reap from such a project.

Who is Blanchard? One of Renamo's biggest private backers in the 1980s. And he is linked to far-right, racist groups in the United States.

Blanchard also has good friends in the Inkatha Freedom Party, according to a Jan. 19 article in Johannesburg's Mail & Guardian. Inkatha is the South African group that massacred members of the African National Congress on orders of the apartheid secret police, according to recent court testimony.

Enron And U.S. Embassy

There are others hoping to make a killing in Mozambique. One is the Houston-based Enron firm.

Its executives want Mozambique to sign a contract allowing Enron to develop and market a huge reservoir of natural gas at Pende, in Inhambane. But it is offering miserably low terms.

When Minerals Minister John Kachamila objected, the U.S. Embassy itself intervened, threatening to withdraw aid to Mozambique.

Kachamila told the Houston Chronicle: "There were outright threats to withhold development funds if we didn't sign and sign soon. Their diplomats ... pressured me to sign a deal which was not good for Mozambique."

Kachamila also accused the embassy of a "smear campaign"--telling the press he wouldn't sign the contract without a big kickback.

It so happens that this same U.S. government is on a big propaganda campaign supposedly to advance human rights in Africa. From Nigeria to Kenya, Washington and the media are taking Africans to task for not running their affairs properly.

Bloody war is not the only weapon of the profit-hungry. Withholding aid is much cleaner. It is a crime of omission, but it kills just as dead.

Mozambique, after so many years of exploitation and war, is considered the poorest country in Africa. The average annual income is $90 to $100.

In September, the Mozambican government announced it would raise the minimum wage--$14 a month--by 37.5 percent, or half the rate of inflation. But on Sept. 23, International Monetary Fund official Sergio Leite weighed in, calling this "excessive."

This group of imperialist bankers told the Frelimo government it had to impose tight curbs on wage hikes and social-security benefits or development aid would be held back.

The Mozambique Peace Process Bulletin wrote in December: "Finance Minister Tomas Salomao was forced to promise the IMF further cuts in health and education spending. Mozambique must also cut back on donor-funded rebuilding of war-damaged infrastructure, such as roads, because this spending is considered by the IMF to be inflationary."

The IMF and World Bank push poor countries like Mozambique to privatize state-owned enterprises. This is leading to massive layoffs, according to a Jan. 28 report of the Panafrican News Agency.

There are other funding agencies known as "donors." For example, the United Nations set up a trust fund to finance Renamo's transition from a military to a political organization. This baptismal cleansing of a vile mercenary army was necessary so that Renamo could run in the 1994 elections.

Now the "donors" say they won't give more money unless Renamo has veto power over the electoral law.

The following sums up quite accurately what Mozambique faces today:

"In contrast to what we would like to believe, the rulers of Africa are not the various African states. ... The rulers of Africa and of Mozambique are the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. ...

"Their program is to integrate Africa into a system of economic neo-colonialism which takes no account of the needs of people. What counts is the free market; its god is money."

This could have been written by one of the many revolutionaries who fought for Mozambique's independence. However, it is from Nova Vida, a publication of the Mozambican Catholic Church.

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