SECURITY, CONFLICT, AND REINTEGRATION
IN MOZAMBIQUE: CASE STUDIES OF
LAND ACCESS IN THE POSTWAR PERIOD
by
Gregory W. Myers, Julieta Eliseu,
and Erasmo Nhachungue
The war is not over, FRELIMO and RENAMO are
only taking a holiday.
Peasants in Tete Province,
September 1993.
I have this picture in mind of a great land-rush, with
people waiting at the border ready to rush forward.8 to
claim their land. South Africans and Zimbabweans
are lined up at the borders and waiting.
Representative of international assistance
organization, August 1993.
I. INTRODUCTION
Just over a year ago, in October 1992, the Peace Accord was signed in Mozambique. Many
positive changes have taken place since then. With a few exceptions, hostilities have ceased
between government (FRELIMO) and RENAMO forces. United Nations detachments have
arrived and are supervising the process of demobilization. Although a date for elections has
been postponed several times, the pertinent law has been passed by the National Assembly
and multiparty national elections are scheduled for October 1994. Political parties have
formed and registered and are discussing some socioeconomic and political issues. Some
roads used for commercial transport have been cleared of land mines, and plans to clear and
rehabilitate other strategic routes have moved forward.8 . Markets in rural areas have begun to
reemerge, and transport enterprises have started to move goods between cities and between
urban areas and rural districts. These developments have coincided with two consecutive
years of good rainfall in many areas of the country. Significantly, many individuals displaced
by war, drought, or government policy have resumed agricultural production. Hundreds of
thousands of Mozambicans have left refugee camps, accommodation centers for the displaced,
communal villages, and other locations to which they had been displaced. Indeed, the
countryside in postwar Mozambique is in a state of intense transformation.