Mozambican National Resistance
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Mozambican National Resistance
Resistência Nacional Moçambicana |
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|---|---|
| Leader | Afonso Dhlakama |
| Chairman | Manuel Zeca Bissopo |
| Founded | 1975 |
| Headquarters | Avenida Ahmed Sekou Touré Nº 657, Maputo |
| Youth wing | RENAMO Youth League |
| Ideology |
Mozambican nationalism, Conservative liberalism, Right-wing populism |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| International affiliation | Centrist Democrat International (observer) |
| Assembly of the Republic |
89 / 250
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| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| www |
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The Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO; Portuguese: Resistência Nacional Moçambicana) is a militant organization and political movement in Mozambique. Sponsored by the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), it was founded in 1975 as part of an anti-Communist backlash against the country's ruling FRELIMO party.
Initially led by André Matsangaissa, a former senior official in FRELIMO's armed wing, the movement had its roots in a menagerie of anti-FRELIMO dissident groups which mushroomed immediately prior and shortly following Mozambican independence, as well as South African and Rhodesian attempts to encourage these competing interests. It is clear that RENAMO's ranks were bolstered by Mozambican political exiles who genuinely opposed FRELIMO in principle, and a number of others who were conscripted by force. On 4 October 1992, FRELIMO and RENAMO signed the Rome General Peace Accords, ending the Mozambican Civil War.
Critics of RENAMO frequently decried the movement as a "proxy army" of Rhodesia and later, South Africa's apartheid government. It has been theorised that RENAMO was formed for the sole purpose of combating Mozambican support for Rhodesian insurgents. On the other hand, RENAMO was also reflective of FRELIMO's own splintering support base and dwindling popularity in the post-independence era. Following the war it has been responsible for promoting constitutional reform as well as a strong domestic private sector.
In 1984 the South African and Mozambican governments signed the Nkomati Accord, in which South Africa agreed to stop sponsoring RENAMO if the Mozambican government expelled exiled members of the African National Congress (ANC) residing there. This was consistent with the Total National Strategy then in existence whereby the carrot of infrastructural development projects would be offered as an inducement for co-operation, supported by the stick of military reprisal if guerillas of the ANC were still given succour. However, the Mozambican government did not expel the exiled members of the ANC and consequently the South African government continued funnelling financial and military resources until a permanent peace accord was reached in 1992 and was supervised by the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) until 1994. To nudge this process in the right direction a special operation was launched by the National Intelligence Service called Operation Bush Talk, which was designed to permanently end the civil war in Mozambique to stem the flow of military materiel across the porous borders into South Africa. One manifestation of this was the militia of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) that was being trained and armed by the SADF Special Forces as part of Operation Marion which were being armed by weapons coming from Mozambique.
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Wikipedia