KAVANDAME   MEETS THE  PRESS
A Swiss journalist, Mr. Marc
Heyd, recently visited the'
Portuguese colonies and wrote
several articles on 'his impressions for the newspaper, "La
Suisse".  In Porto Amelia,
Mozambique, he was allowed to
interview the FRELIMO traitor,
Lazaro Kavandame, and the following are his comments:
"Solidly 'accompanied1 by Portuguese officials, Lazaro JCavan-
dame, sixty years old, greying
hair, spectacles, very elegant
in a brown outfit, putshimself
at the disposal of the interview
that will last several hours in
suffocating heat.        - - ...
The linguistic difficultieS'^are
almost insurmountable:  Kavandame
speaks only -a Swahill-Makonde"■-'■■■
dialect, and a little Portu- .
guese.  An interpreter translates what he says very approximately into Portuguese and another gives it back in English...
then I have to end up with a
French version.
But one can sense that the former
rebel chief does not want - or
cannot say anything except
generalities. I at least learn
that he gave himself up to the
Portuguese ' because FRELIMO betrayed his people, that they
were suffering too much from the
war, that there were iioomany •
deaths and that he wanted"to
collaborate with the Portuguese
in order to live in peace.*
He says that many people followed
&  him, but does riot want to give any
numbers, nor to give an indication
of the importance "of the defections ■
;-.: in the military and psychological
field.  He adds that 'a number of
Makondes fled from Mozambique at the
beginning of the hostilities and now
a reverse movement is being produced.
The atrocities, particularly the
kidnappings - it is the people from
FRELIMO who-commit-these things, and
not the Portuguese.1  Thus he has set
about .combatting the influehcV of this
liberation movement among his people .
All this seems a little like a lesson
that has been learned off by heart,
and a lack of liberty of expression.
Without doubt, Kavandame has a very
narrow margin of movement;  his
enemies of yesterday want to keep him
alive to'"'utilise. him for "their propaganda aims--and his' enemies of today
probably wish for his disappearance.
In any case, he is not"a-free man in
his movements and his words.
The Portuguese will do all they can
to obtain the most profit they can
■' from his desertion.  They are distributing pamphlets - in both Makonde
dialect and Portuguese - with a photograph of Kavandame and his signature
encouraging the 'rebels' to follow
his example, they make him speak on
the radio in the same way, etc.
But this isrw^r, and all methods are
good."
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