Information in English
July 5: Peace March
Saturday 5th of July, a peace march will be held in Maputo. The march, organized by the Civil Society Movement for Peace, will start at the Wesleyan Methodist church on Av. 24 de Julho 986 at 08:00 and will finish at the Praça da Paz where the following message will be read.
We demand peace, Now!
Message from the Mozambican public to abandon the war and to reestablish Peace
Dear Mozambican women and men
Dear Mozambican sisters and brothers
It has been more than one year that the Mozambican public has been, once again, suffering the horrors of military violence.
On our streets and in our forests, the blood of Mozambican children is shed once again, justified on the grounds of unknown and obscure causes for us all.
Once again, the dreams and plans of young Mozambicans and their families for a bright future are being buried. The hopes and wishes of their mothers, fathers and dear ones are buried in a coffin.
Women, men, children and aged people are becoming dislocated from their residence and their farms, which they built with so many sacrifices.
In different localities in central province of Sofala, millions of Mozambicans, our brothers and sisters, fathers, mothers and their young children and aged people are once again reminded of the wounds and pain from the civil war that ended in 1992. Once again they are reminded of the pain to abandon their houses and farms, to return to live in hideouts or refugee camps, to escape death, to suffer cold weather and hunger and consequently, to experience aggravation of the precarious health situation.
Schools and units of health care were attacked and/or closed. Health and education professionals/providers abandoned their work, leaving the children without the right of education and the population without minimum necessary health care.
On the National highway number 1, principal route of connection between north and south of the country, there are many who have created panic, fear and physical insecurity. Therefore, impeding a peaceful travel for the people who are visiting their relatives, friends or those who are looking for a means to sustain their families.
Mozambican citizens
On 4th October 1992, on behalf of all of us, the Mozambican government and RENAMO signed a peace accord in Rome in front of the whole world. That accord announced end of a 16 years long devastating and destructive war, whose memories we would like to erase from our minds and our hearts forever, FOREVER.
The signing of peace accord was a culmination of over two years long negotiations between the two parties. The representatives of the two parties in their first joint statement in June 1990, declared that they are like brothers, and to that extent, they are willing to value what unites them rather than what divides them!
For us, Mozambican public, the signing of peace accord symbolized the end of an era and culture of violence and beginning of an era and culture of peace. For us, Mozambican public, the signing of peace accord between the government and RENAMO symbolized the establishment of a pact of brotherhood between all the Mozambicans, guaranteeing that we will never resort to use of weapons for resolving political differences.
For this reason, we lived 20 years in peace, confidently believing that peace has come to stay!
And if we lived 20 years in peace, this is an evidence of our capability that we can live in peace. This is a proof that we can coexist, respecting our political differences, as proclaimed by the declaration of June 1990; we see each other as brothers and we have the ability to recognize and value what unites us rather than what divides us!
Mozambican sisters and brothers
While, this vision of war is running in front of our eyes, the two parties in conflict – the government and RENAMO – are meeting, in Maputo, according to the convenience of their timetables. They meet in air-conditioned halls of the parliament, greeting each other, to conduct a dialogues made of monologues, where there say that we live democratically … in our names! We ask: After all who does the Excellency represent in the assembly of the parliament? Because we are the ones who elected you, we are the ones who are dying, everyday!
And for this reason, we, the people, are those to whom you all said to represent us with dignity, we all, in whose name you all spoke, we whose votes are hoping for in October, we come here to demand our legitimate right to participate in electoral process, in conditions of full peace, security and tranquility. Because only in ambience of peace, security and harmony one can speak of free, just, transparent and credible elections!
Indeed, if the fighting does not stop immediately, reestablishing peace in all national territories, we will declare the day of elections, 15th October, 2014, the day of national mourning, in memory of all our brothers who died in this conflict!
Mozambican sisters and brothers
The political and military conflict that plagues our beloved motherland for more than one year now, has already produced many human fatalities and cannot be tolerated anymore! How many dead and how many dislocated?
We Mozambicans believe in us as peaceful people who love peace.
We Mozambicans, believe in us as people of intelligence and wisdom, and capable of resolving our difference peacefully and people who love life and hate death!
We Mozambicans, young and adult; farmers dislocated from their residence, we all, want to go out of the woods and return, today, to our families, to reunite with our villages and our farms. We want to continue to travel around the country without violence; we want to continue our business without threats of death!
We Mozambicans, men and women, young and adult, aged people, farmers, workers, professionals from different areas, intellectuals, businessmen, sellers, students, from north to south, from east to West, from Rovuma to Maputo, from Zumbo to Indico, say and shout out loudly:
We don’t want war!
We renounce violence!
Enough of military violence!
Enough of political violence!
Because peace is a human right, precious and inviolable to all the people.
We do not ask for peace: We demand peace!
We want peace, now!
