Marcelino dos Santos e a verdade e reconciliação nacional

A atitude do Marcelino dos Santos neste último ano não deixa transparecer a situação da Frelimo após a morte do Dr. Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane. Uma situação de perseguições políticas, criação de centros de reeducação, execuções aos opositores, criação de aldeias comunais entre as acções que se tornaram o verdadeiro inimigo do povo moçambicano e que por conseguinte, arrastou o país a uma guerra civil. Para compreender-se melhor a postura deste veterano, aqui vem uma entrevista com ele quando celebrava seu 70 aniversário natalício.

Marcelino dos Santos at 70 looks to socialism

Capitalism in Mozambique is not something that will last for ever, declared the country's veteran nationalist, Marcelino dos Santos, in an interview published by Noticias on 20 May on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Dos Santos was a founder of the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in 1962, and was Frelimo deputy president from 1969 to 1977, when the position was abolished.

He was Minister for Economic Development in the late 1970s, and was then Frelimo Political Bureau member in charge of the economy in the early 1980s. From 1987 until 1994 he was the chairman of the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic. He remains a member of the Frelimo Central Committee, and is also a prominent poet.

Dos Santos has been one of the most outspoken representatives of the Frelimo left, and he said that he remains a marxist-leninist.

"Even today, if we are to ask what is the system that can really ensure the well-being of everyone, it's obviously socialism", he said. "Capitalism in Mozambique is a process that we are living through, but as far as I'm concerned it's not something we will live with forever".

Dos Santos said that he too had participated in the Frelimo meetings "which led us to make what I would call a historic retreat to capitalism. The conditions of the time, the aggression by apartheid using the armed bandits of Renamo, and the difficulty we had in defeating Renamo militarily - that led us to adopt a diplomatic struggle, in which we triumphed, since we forced Renamo to accept peace".

Dos Santos admitted that Frelimo is now "a party of all social strata, and it certainly has people who are completely in agreement with capitalism, and others who are not. I am one of the latter, and I shall fight for the retransformation of Frelimo, but within the framework of our legality".

As for national reconciliation, dos Santos thought that would only be really possible when Renamo recognised "that what it did against the Mozambican people during the war was a crime".
"One day we shall propose the creation of an ''Association of the Victims of Renamo'', and we shall demand compensation from Renamo", promised dos Santos. "If that happens, it will be the largest association in Mozambique".

He said that reconciliation was under way with the Renamo rank and file, but not with the Renamo leadership "who are in the hands of foreigners".

http://www.poptel.org.uk/mozambique-news/newsletter/aim158.html#story1