ABSTRACT
Regional security depends primarily on the stability of individual states. The establishment of stable conditions where they are missing is, therefore, a matter of common interest within a region. This chapter examines the experience of Mozambique in demobilising soldiers from both sides of the long-running conflict, as well as the process of collecting and storing arms. The problems of small arms proliferation in the region today may stem, in part, from the widespread availability of arms during the war in Mozambique and the inability to adequately remove these arms from circulation after the war. From the beginning, the two parties to the conflict in Mozambique recognised that the process of disarmament was crucial to the full implementation of the General Peace Accord signed on 4 October 1992 in Rome. Therefore, micro-disarmament must be considered a key element of a post-conflict transition.
