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The Conflict with Renamo, 1976-1992
«June 1986»
Dossier MZ-0020
76. The «Resistance» Can Win in Mozambique
– Says the Heritage Foundation
Above: An undated photograph of the MNR leader Afonso Dhlakama in a relaxed mood and in civilian clothes, almost certainly in Gorongosa.
The ultra-right-wing US new-sheet National Security Record led its June issue with a story headlined "The Resistance Can Win in Mozambique" in an attempt to influence the Reagan administration into abandoning its engagement with the Mozambican government, and adopting a hard-line, hostile approach. The publisher, the Heritage Foundation, founded a decade earlier in 1973, was an aggressive conservative think-tank based in Washington DC. In the article, the Foundation argued that US policy should be to withdraw the US ambassador in Maputo and not replace him; stop all aid and cancel "most favored nation" trading status; and provide US$5 million in "humanitarian aid" directly to Renamo, which, it claimed, of all the anti-Soviet insurgencies in the world, was the "closest to victory". The rebels were described as "Mozambican patriots".
Reports that Renamo was setting up an office in Durban, South Africa, were surrounded by confusion. A former SADF officer, Pedro Buccellato, claimed that he was really aiming to help Mozambican refugees, but admitted that he was close to the rebel movement, which would "represent the cause of the refugees justly". Meanwhile Evo Fernandes said that Buccellato was not an MNR representative.
Click on the yellow folder image below to download an unsorted zipped archive of documents and press clippings in PDF format concerning the conflict between the Mozambican government and the MNR/Renamo in June 1986.
