THE BACKGROUND a) (1)"Joaquim Gouveia [Frelimo guerrilla] recalls that when Kaulza's [Portuguese armed forces commander in-chief in Mozambique] forces entered the areas where Frelimo was strongly implanted they killed anybody, children, old people, women - they were just killing, killing. And they were carrying away everything - hoes, machetes, pots, even mortars for pounding maize... Gouveia also recalls that planes were dropping 'incendiary bombs which burned everything they touched' and chemical weapons which had an even worse effect. 'They were dropping these bombs on farmland to destroy it and to ensure that there would be no crop the following year and so the people would go hungry..." (p. 64) (ii)"Father Cesare Bertull, the Regional Superior of the White Fathers (Roman Catholic) in Mozambique, described in detail the horrific tortures being inflicted on Mozambicans suspected of opposing the colonial regime." (p.68). (iii)"The Dragons of Death quickly showed their political stripe. They went to the capital's main prison and released about 200 PTDE (International Police for the Defence of the State ) ,i)4ents whom the post-coup Portuguese authorities had detained, pending Milan iLs into responsibility for the torture of political prisoners. Other supporters of the Dragons were touring the black township in open vehicles, shooting black Mozambicans at random." p.87) (iv)"Partly because of the growing expense of the war and partly because almost all the technicians in the country had been Portuguese and had left, the Mozambicans would not be able to repair infrastructure destroyed in Rhodesian attacks. By flattening villages and destroying roads, bridges, railways and vital communications centres Smith's military chief, General Peter Walls was doing more than stressing the cost factor of war: he was pointing out that the Mozambicans were losing the little that they had inherited from the Portuguese and would soon have nothing." (p.100) (v)"Mozambique did not have a modern, well-equipped regular army. The inherited guerilla structure of independence days would appear inadequate in the face of big infantry and artillery invasions with strong air support. The Mozambicans would be obliged to invest heavily in military hardware, which 6 would severely limit the government's ability to improve the standard of living of its citizens." (p.100) )"...Samora Machel never hesitated to support the Zimbabwe struggle. Mozambique became the home for Robert Mugabe and Zanu. It was this relationship between Machel and Mugabe that became the anvil for Zimbabwe's Independence. Machel was unstinting in his support, experiencing constant raids from Ian Smith's forces and infiltration from Selous Scouts." (David Owen) (p.102) (vii)"Mozambique is, and was then, a poor country. So recruiting mercenaries was not difficult. It became even less difficult after the Rhodesians and their surrogates destroyed schools, clinics and communications facilities, that had been established since independence. New villages with all these facilities were attacked and peasants were murdered." (p. 106) (viii)"In the People's Republic of Mozambique we have witnessed systematic violations of legality: violations of the constitution, violations of laws and regulations and violations of our principles. A particularly serious aspect of this situation is that these violations are in many cases committed by members of the defence and security forces. They are committed by members of the Mozambique Armed Forces ( F PLNI), by members of the police force and militias and by personnel of the Al nistry of Security (SNASP)... Aggression and torture are used as a means of punishing mistakes, which are often imaginary, and as a means of making people confess to crimes, committed or not. "[These abuses are] the result of the continued presence of values and practices from colonial-capitalist and tribal-feudal society, and mistakes and deviations that are the result of our own failings" (Samora Machel at a mass rally in Maputo on 5th November 1981) pp 160-161. (ix)"The President (Samora Machel) marched up and down the platform, speaking non-stop, agitated by old memories of friends who had been reduced to human wreckage before being butchered by the colonialists and their hirelings. The nurses at the hospital who had disappeared after being taken to the secret police dungeons. The Frelimo guerillas who were captured wounded and refused to reveal secrets under excruciating torture. Then memories emerged from the other side of the hall. Grim confessions of betrayal. Free from any threat of jail or hanging, men admitted to having been paid by the secret police to infiltrate students' groups, discussion associations even conversations on railway trains, to get the names of African nationalists.