IN MOZAMBIQUE
WITH FRELIMO
By ANDERS JOHANSSON
3
SIXTY thousand Portuguese
soldiers are trying In vain
to defend Mozambique —
the Salazar regime's southeast African colony —
against surging African
nationalism.
The colonial forces are
successfully fought by an army of
8,000 well-trained and well-armed guerrilla soldiers — among
them several hundred women
fighters*
Mozambique is weU cm Its way
to become a »ew Algeria,
During this bitter war, which
has now been ragteg for more than
three years, it has been next
to Impossible to discern the truth
from the fighting parties*
coof Ucting war bulletins.
Both skies allege thai their
forces have killed well over
5,000 enemies, while their own
louses are said to be very small,
Frelimo -» Frente d* Liberia*
em de Mozambique —' maintains
that, with the exception of the few
towns in the area and some dozens of Portuguese garrisons,
the liberation front has control
over the northern provinces of
Cabo DeJg&&> and Niassa (one
fifth of Mozambique with 800,000
inhabitants^ while Portugal all-
eges that the "terrorists* have
been crushed and the sporadic
•acts of violence*, which still
occur, are committed by •infiltrators from abroad* who, tinder
cover of the darkness, cross
th» Ruvuraa River from Tanzania
and return there the same night.
Dr« Salazar seems to persist
in believing in the Nazi propaganda trick: if a lie is repeated often enough, It win finally sound as a truth.
During the week spent with
Frelimo (as the first ever journ
alist! l noticed ths prssasc^ of
Portugal only in weapons captured by the liberation front,
a reconnaissance plane, and some
destroyed villages which were
shot to ruins by Portuguese
artillery soon after the re volution
began m September 35,1964, as
a retaliation for the villagers'
support of the guerrillas.
Obviously, the time I spent
there was too short to enable me
to study the conditions in the whole
of the province, but ail the same
I could get proof enough to say
ii&i Frelimo has started a
successful war of Independence
against the Portuguese colonial
power*
Already, the guerrillas hold
large areas in the northern part
m Mozambique; it is effective,
In spite of a rather slack organ-
lilt ion (grades and uniforms are
ftou-e 3&*tesi)s it is supported by
lite civilians and, furthermore, U
fights on 'home ground* In a
terrain highly suitable for
guerrilla warfare,
1 fallowed Or, Eduardo Men*
dlace, Frelimo's President, m
his first visit to the liberated
arena, and the reception be and
hi? delegation received by the
w|] fcgers, who met them by the
thousands, proved that the or-
pulsation fulfills one of the mala
requirements of an elective
guerrilla movement: a trusting
co-operation between liberator
gild the Uberated.
If the Portuguese colonial ad*
ministration Is right when ft al~
leges that Frelimo is terrorising
the civilian population, then it's
rather astonishing thai this population should have greeted uswtfch
such }oy, when together with
hundreds at guerrilla soldiers,
we walked through the villages*
•Our good relations with the
civilian popt£$kim is the resatt
of gigantic w&rk*, says S5~year
old    army commander Samara
Mtchal —MoeambKjoe'BGeaeral
Giap,
*    *    *'
Comrade Samora, hk nickname among bis o£?icer«€G&ea-
gues end the privates, is a touch
but highly respected, commander-in-chief with a typical
guerrilla beard*
He carries his headquarters
in *his poc&et*, and, together
with his staff, he is always
on the move between different
operational zones,
•Before we could start fight-'
teg, we had to aro&s© the people
from their ap&thy#their ifcar of
the Portefuese tyrants; w#bed
to make them aware of why
ana now we swt ngtst tgpstper
for^ our fre&tom,* -.tie &$$&•
When Prtttmp m$ 'ic^m& in
Tanzania's capital, && e©
S&l&zm, in Me September, is 33,
it declared as Its wml to*orgaft-
ise, m^tjlUse and CDite all £h*
people of Mozambique*, In or?3er
to attain *a total IVqa&t&m or
the Portuguese colonial dotnla-
ation*, and *aa Immediate and
complete   .fniepeadeaa? of Mo-
*   •   *
It   took two years of ttarongh
preparation before Frelli&o w^
to its first attack against Boar-
tugal's forces*
In 1963, 250 men ware rjnt
abroad for political and military
training, the majority to Algeria,
some to Russia and a fewtoChina,
fe May 1964, about half of the
xntn were ordered back to
Mozambique to teach the pecpie
the necessity of getting; together
and fight the Fortunes*,
. When Frelimo's political agitators had worked undergrowth*
the colony for four months they
were reinforced, in August, I364t
by the first units of armed
guerrilla    soldiers* These 2§0