Nkomati Agreement
The Nkomati Agreement ( English : Nkomati Accord , Portuguese : Acordo de Nkomati ) was a peace agreement signed on March 16, 1984 between the governments of Mozambique and the Republic of South Africa . The name is derived from the Nkomati River, which runs near the small South African town of Komatipoort , where the agreement was signed on its sandbanks on the joint border between the two countries. It was officially referred to as a "nonaggression and good neighborliness" agreement.
Contractual partner and purpose
The signatories of this bilateral agreement were the President of Mozambique, Samora Machel , and Pieter Willem Botha , then Prime Minister of South Africa. In the agreement, Mozambique on the one hand undertook to cease support for liberation movements active in the fight against the South African apartheid system such as the African National Congress (ANC) or the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) or the transfer of personnel or To prevent military goods from being sold through Mozambican territory. On the other hand, South Africa undertook to end its support for RENAMO, which was fighting on Mozambican soil against the Marxist FRELIMO government of Mozambique .
ceremony
Numerous invited government representatives from southern Africa attended the signing ceremony. The group of those present included 1000 people. Botswana , Lesotho , Malawi , Zambia , Zimbabwe , Swaziland and Tanzania were represented by their ambassadors in Maputo . The governments of the USA , Great Britain and the FRG sent Prime Minister Botha their congratulatory addresses by telegram. Those in attendance also included representatives from leading companies and opposition politicians. Rádio Moçambique commented on the signing ceremony that it was not a “meeting of friends”, but that of “Realpolitikern” (“realistic leaders”). One day after the signing, Samora Machel said at a large demonstration in Maputo that the economic devastation caused by the “ rebels ” in the country had been the background for his approval of this agreement.
criticism
Despite repeated calls by Samora Machel to the leaders of the nations of the South African Development Conference to participate in the signing, the neighboring heads of state stayed away because they saw the agreement as a surrender to the apartheid regime.
ANC representatives in London criticized the agreement and saw in it an aid to maintaining the white minority rule in South Africa. The Pan Africanist Congress also stated from London that the signing of the contract would not dissuade it from its goals.
Consequential effects
Machel, however, made little effort to prevent guerrilla activities by ANC fighters from Mozambican territory. The South African government also continued to support the Renamo with arms deliveries and otherwise, thus promoting the destabilization of the neighboring country. South Africa officially annulled the agreement in 1985 due to "multiple violations". However, both states agreed on May 26, 1988 to revive the agreement.
Only the 1992 Rome General Peace Agreement put an end to the twelve-year-old RENAMO terror in Mozambique. The United Nations operation in Mozambique , or ONUMOZ for short, was established until 1994 to secure peace .
literature
- Ibrahim SR Msabaha, Timothy M. Shaw (Eds.): Confrontation and Liberation in Southern Africa: Regional Directions after the Nkomati Accord . Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, 1987
- YG-M. Lulat: United States Relations with South Africa: A Critical Overview from the Colonial Period to the Present . Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 2008
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c SAIRR : Race Relations Survey 1984 . Johannesburg 1985, pp. 831-834
- ^ South Africa and Mozambique sign a non-aggression pact . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
- ^ SA and Mozambique revive Nkomati Accord . on www.sahistory.org.za (English)