ABSTRACT
Mozambique's war pitted the one-party Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) government, inspired by Marxist Leninist principles, against the Mozambique National Resistance Movement (RENAMO), a rural insurgency instigated in the 1960s by the Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia. Portugal ended its colonial rule in Mozambique in 1975. It handed over power to FRELIMO, a national liberation organization led by Samora Machel. Ian Smith's government launched the RENAMO insurgency to retaliate against Mozambique for its support of Zimbabwe African National Union. Officials of the Holy See and of the Mozambican government had met informally at Sant'Egidio since 1982, and in 1985 Samora Machel met with the pope. The governments of Portugal and the United States wanted a role in the negotiations. At Joaquim Chissano's invitation, the UN sent a survey team to Mozambique to evaluate requirements for implementing the emerging agreement. The Mozambique peace process was an inclusive, integrated effort to end a hopeless war of national disintegration.
