TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF SIGNING OF MOZAMBIQUE PEACE AGREEMENT TO BE COMMEMORATED BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL ON 4 OCTOBER

Note to Correspondents

TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF SIGNING OF MOZAMBIQUE PEACE AGREEMENT TO BE COMMEMORATED

BY ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL ON 4 OCTOBER

On 4 October, the Economic and Social Council will hold a commemorative meeting to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the signing of the General Peace Agreement that marked the end of Mozambique’s devastating 16-year civil war.  The event, to be held in the Economic and Social Council Chamber from 3 to 6 p.m., will celebrate Mozambique’s extraordinary success in creating a climate of peace and enacting, with the assistance of the international community and the United Nations, economic, social and political reforms that have led to its dramatic economic and political recovery.

Council President Ivan Simonovic will deliver the opening remarks.  Speakers will include Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette, Mozambique’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Leonardo Santos Simão, General Assembly President Jan Kavan (Czech Republic), Security Council President Martin Belinga-Eboutou, and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Mark Malloch Brown.  The meeting will identify lessons from the Mozambican experience that can be applied to other African countries emerging from conflict, such as Guinea-Bissau.

Mozambique is considered to be one of the major successes in United Nations post-conflict peace-building.  The commitment to peace by the majority of the population, combined with the political maturity of the country’s leadership, has been critical to creating the environment for the consolidation of democracy and economic growth.  Since the signing of the Peace Agreement in Rome on 4 October 1992, a process of military demobilization, accompanied by the creation of a unified army, was successfully accomplished under the supervision of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ), which at its peak included 6,576 military personnel and 1,087 police observers.

The country’s economic performance has been consistently robust, according to the UNDP, meeting and often surpassing ambitious targets.  There are visible signs of a structural transformation in the once crippled economy, and a lively political climate is emerging as democratic institutions and civil society gain strength.  Albeit from a small base, gross domestic product has grown by 7.5 per cent between 1996 and 2001, in spite of the disruption caused by the devastating floods that hit parts of southern and central Mozambique in February 2000.  The outlook for the coming years is positive, as the country has the continent's largest private investment programme outside of South Africa.

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It is felt that the Economic and Social Council needs to remain engaged in Mozambique because, in spite of its remarkable recovery, it remains one of the world’s poorest countries.  About 69 per cent of the population lives below the poverty line.  According to UNDP’s 2002 Human Development Report, Mozambique’s human development index ranks 170 out of 173 countries, and is well below the  sub-Saharan Africa and least developed countries averages.

Because of the devastation of its war of liberation and the civil conflict that followed soon thereafter, Mozambique had to start almost from scratch.  Its economy remains extremely fragile, and the country confronts one of the highest adult infection rates for HIV/AIDS, at 14.5 per cent; given such rates, this fragility will remain for some time.  Furthermore, post-war reconstruction is still incomplete.

Historical Background

A few years after Mozambique gained independence from Portugal in 1975, the country was plunged into a long and debilitating civil war between the Government and the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana(RENAMO), supported by South Africa's apartheid regime.  On 4 October 1992, after two years of negotiations in Rome, the two parties signed a General Peace Agreement.  As part of the Agreement, the Security Council established ONUMOZ to monitor and support a ceasefire, the demobilization of forces and the holding of national elections.

In early 1993, some 6,500 ONUMOZ troops and military observers were deployed, led by the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Aldo Ajello of Italy.  To guarantee the implementation of the Agreement and settle disputes, a Supervisory and Monitoring Commission was established.  It was chaired by the United Nations, and composed of the Mozambican Government, RENAMO, Italy (mediator State), France, Germany, Portugal, United Kingdom and the United States (observer States at the Rome talks) and the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

In addition to verifying the implementation of the military aspects of the Peace Agreement and overseeing the electoral process, ONUMOZ launched a humanitarian assistance programme to help the 3.7 million war-displaced people to resettle in their communities.  For its part, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) started the repatriation of 1.3 million refugees in 1993.  By mid-1994, some 75 per cent of the internally displaced people had been resettled, and most of the refugees had returned.

Demobilization started in 1994, eventually involving more than 76,000 soldiers from both sides -- 10,000 of whom ONUMOZ helped to integrate into the new national army.  The ONUMOZ also recovered about 155,000 weapons.

The country's first multi-party elections, monitored by ONUMOZ, were held in October 1994.  The mandate of the Mission formally came to an end on 9 December 1994, but ONUMOZ continued to carry out residual functions until the end of January 1995.

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Several countries contributed military and civilian police personnel to ONUMOZ -- Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Portugal, Russian Federation, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Togo, United States, Uruguay and Zambia.

For informationabout the Economic and Social Council event, please contact Lotta Tahtinen, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, at (917) 367-2212;

e-mail: tahtinen@un.org.

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