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MARCH, 1972  #13
Information is ammunition for your struggle.  A
fighter without ammunition is not a fighter.  And
for you, a fighter without information cannot speak.
Samora M. Machel, President of FRELIMO
to CFM delegation, Dar es Salaam, 8/71.
TETE:  NOW THE MAIN FRONT
Copyright © 1972 by Committee For a Free Mozambique
Intensified activities by FRELIMO guerrillas in Tete province of Mozambique
during the past year, and especially since August, 1971, have caused increasing
difficulties to the Portuguese effort to complete the Cabora Bassa hydroelectric scheme
along the Zambezi River.  If completed, Cabora Bassa would be the largest dam and
hydroelectric project in Africa, and would furnish most of its power to South Africa.
The dam, if completed, would also provide irrigation for hundreds of thousands of
acres of land, and the Portuguese have announced their intention to settle 1,000,000
whites in the Cabora Bassa area.  Cabora Bassa is a palpable symbol of continued
white rule in Mozambique and Southern Africa. Accordingly, FRELIMO, at its second
party congress in 1968, vowed to prevent the dam from ever being completed.
While heretofore the Mozambique liberation struggle has been concentrated in
Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces in the north of Mozambique, FRELIMO first engaged in military activities in Tete province, where the dam is being built, as
early as 1964-65. These efforts were abandoned, however, due to difficulties, and
FRELIMO militants went underground to concentrate on political work in the area.  In
March 1968, FRELIMO announced the reopening of the Tete front. By December 1969,
two months after the contract for construction of the dam had been awarded to ZAMCO,
a consortium of South African, French, Swiss, German, and Portuguese companies,
guerrillas were reported by the Portuguese to be "intimidating" the population.
By April 1970, FRELIMO was said to be conducting hit and run actions in the area.
FRELIMO's own communique in September, 1970 stated that military operations had been
expanded to affect all of Tete province north of the Zambezi; south of the river
FRELIMO was still conducting no military actions but only political work.
XQMMlTlEEJor aJFREE MOZAMBIQUE 616 W. 116 St. NY. NY. 10027      280-4242