Continued international support needed to consolidate peace

UN Chronicle, June, 1995

The need for continued international support in consolidating peace and stability in Mozambique was more acute that ever before", the Security Council was told on 27 January.

Leonardo Santos Simao, Mozambique's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, said the UN-sponsored elections in October 1994 and the withdrawal of the UN Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) were "only the culmination of an important phase of the whole peace process and the beginning of a new and more challenging one':

Future action should include strengthening of national institutions responsible for the maintenance of peace, tranquillity and public order, and of the judicial system "so as to consolidate a real state of law", Mr. Simao said.

Established by Council resolution 797 (1992) of 16 December 1992 to verify the cease-fire, elections and police neutrality and to offer humanitarian assistance, including de-mining, ONUMOZ was successfully completed after the country's first multi-party general elections, held from 27 to 29 October 1994.

On 8 December, Mozambique's new Parliament was installed in the capital of Maputo. The following day, President Joaquim Chissano was inaugurated.

Legwaila J. Legwaila of Botswana, speaking for States members of the Southern African Development Community--Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe--stressed that ONUMOZ termination and its complete withdrawal should not mean the end of international assistance. He urged continuous support for social and economic development to ensure that there was "no reversal of gains made so far".

Jean-Bernard Merimee of France, who spoke on behalf of the European Union, stated that "all Mozambicans must be able to see their ballot transformed into a road map to democracy and progress': The European Union, which had defrayed 80 per cent of the election expenses, "will continue its assistance':

Karl F. Inderfurth of the United States declared that the peacekeeping operation in Mozambique had been "one of the largest and most successful" in UN history. As the "reconstruction and rehabilitation can now go forward", his country "will be there to help': he assured.

Pedro Catarino of Portugal said assistance for reconstruction and development was the only way to consolidate democracy.

General Assembly action

Some $40 million was appropriated by the General Assembly on 10 March to liquidate ONUMOZ. By adopting resolution 49/235 without a vote, it decided how the Operation's assets would be disposed of, and determined that certain of the assets could be donated to the mine-clearance programme.