Peace will make it alive’ said Shimon Peres the Israeli Foreign Minister promoting his
Posted in General on 18. Aug, 2010
Peace will make it alive,’ said Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister, promoting his dream of transforming the ‘rift valley into a peace valley’.Only President Clinton, however, dared briefly address ‘the forces of terror’ as the peace-makers term those who condemn their treaties not as victory but a surrender. But the people of Amman and Tel Aviv, of the West Bank and Gaza were not here to cheer when America was praised for mediating the peace. Behind the bedouin tent, erected for the dignatories, were cement barricades to block car bombers. From look-out towers, soldiers scoured the horizon for infiltrators, while signs on the barbed wire warned of the minefields which were still to be cleared.’I do not believe that we would have reached this great moment without the desire for peace in the hearts of both peoples,’ said Mr Rabin. The two leaders were clearly determined that the televison cameras should focus on the colourful pagentry – but all around were reminders of the fragility of peace, as the weapons of a phalanx of American security agents bristled in the sun. The treaty is opposed by Iran, Libya, the PLO, Hamas, Palestinians living in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank, and Jordan’s largest political party, the Islamic Action Front.King Hussein and Mr Rabin spoke yesterday not of the risks of their new treaty, but of the courage needed to move on. Jordan, in turn, has agreed not to allow foreign forces to be based on its land.
Israel has agreed to recognise Jordan’s ’special status’ as custodian of Jerusalem’s holy sites, a move which has deeply angered Palestinians who want East Jerusalem as their sovereign capital. The two countries agreed to share the meagre water resources of the desert and jointly to build desalinisation plans.Open borders will allow economic co-operation and tourism for the first time. Within one month the two countries will exchange ambassadors. Under the treaty the two countries have agreed that the Israeli-Jordanian border should be based on a British mandate boundary first marked out in 1922.Israel concedes Jordanian sovereignty over 381 sq km of disputed territory, although sections will be leased back to Israeli kibbutzim. ‘God willing there will be no more death, no more misery, no more suspicion, no more fear of what each day will bring,’ said King Hussein, clearly elated that he had won his prize of peace ‘with dignity’ after 27 years.
‘We must forgive the anguish we caused each other, to clear the minefields that divided us for so many years and to supplant it with fields of plenty,’ said Mr Rabin The peace treaty will transform day to day relations between Israel and Jordan. Protected by mass ranks of police, with helicopters overhead, Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister, and King Hussein of Jordan, joined hands over their newly agreed border, while President Bill Clinton looked on.
Under the glaring sun of a Middle East desert, Israel and Jordan yesterday made peace, proclaiming a new era of mutual respect and prosperity for the generations to come. ‘This is the real capital this country has to offer the international community.’Leading article, page 19. ‘If we have a success here, this is a kind of a gold mine,’ Mr Ajello said yesterday. They are rated as the poorest in the world, with an annual per capita income of about dollars 80 ( pounds 49).The UN hoped Mozambique would provide its first triumph in conflict resolution in Africa since Namibia’s independence. Western diplomats in vain have urged Mr Chissano, the expected winner, to form a government of national unity on the model of South Africa in an effort to avert more strife.Political stability would be crucial if Mozambique were to attract the foreign investment needed to exploit its rich farmland, vast deposits of coal, natural gas, extensive fishing resources and to help its 15 million people. Incidents of armed banditry have occured almost every day.Mr Dhlakama had threatened to reject the election results if he detected fraud But he has repeatedly vowed not to return to war. The new unified army is still, in the words of Mr Ajello, ‘a skeleton’.Military analysts estimate that the country is awash with up to 700,000 AK-47 assault rifles.
In 1989, supported by the country’s religious leaders, he offered to negotiate peace with Renamo. Three years later, Frelimo and Renamo signed a peace deal in Rome and asked the UN to oversee a complex process of disarmament, demobilisation, and the creation of a new unified army.Two years on, the transition has been completed partially But dangers remain. The Frelimo army was riddled with corruption and low morale, forcing the government in Maputo to request the intervention of troops from Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Malawi.In October 1986, Machel was killed in an air crash over South Africa. Mr Chissano took office and accelerated Western-backed economic reforms. Finance, training and heavy-arms shipments helped the rebels to expand their war to the entire country, destroying the gains Frelimo had made in improving local education and health facilities. Its decision under President Samora Machel to embark on a revolutionary socialist programme of forcing people into villages, re-education camps, and banishment of traditional chiefs, boosted Renamo’s recruitment.After Rhodesia became an independent Zimbabwe in 1980, South Africa took over sponsorship of Renamo in retaliation for Frelimo’s support for the African National Congress’s armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe.
They were advancing inside Rhodesia as Frelimo pushed back the Portuguese colonial army.Frelimo’s domination by leaders from the Shangaan people of southern Mozambique sparked resentment in the centre and north of the country. Three years ago, Mr Dhlakama, 41, son of a former chief, was leading a South African-backed guerrilla army in an insurgency that killed 1 million people.Renamo’s origins date to the early 1970s, when the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation decided to set up a low-level guerrilla army in Mozambique to thwart the Zimbabwean nationalist fighters. But there were signs that hardline elements in Frelimo were panicking as the elections drew near. An editorial in the pro-Frelimo Noticias newspaper on Tuesday said there was ‘a big international conspiracy’ headed by the United Nations to aid the Dhlakama campaign.The rally in Beira capped a dramatic transformation of Mr Dhlakama from rebel leader to presidential candidate. ‘It is very probable that Mr Dhlakama will not come to Maputo’, where he was planning to vote, Mr Khan said.The UN’s special representative, Aldo Ajello, was holding urgent meetings early this morning with several Western ambassadors at the residence of the British ambassador, Richard Edis.The elections were to be the climax of a two-year peace process that brought an end to one of Africa’s worst civil wars, in which up to one million people were killed and several million others were driven from their homes.The enthusiasm of the last campaign rally in Beira this week confirmed that Renamo, long condemned as one of the world’s most barbaric guerrilla armies, enjoyed widespread popular support in central Mozambique.But analysts believe Mr Dhlakama’s chances of victory against Mr Chissano’s Frelimo, which has ruled the one of the world’s poorest country since independence from Portugal in 1975, were slim. He described the technical problems as part of a plot to keep President Joaquim Chissano’s ruling Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in power.Mr Dhlakama, who was in the central port city of Beira last night, had approved of the boycott, Mr Khan said. Mozambique’s first general elections appeared in jeopardy last night as Afonso Dhlakama’s Renamo movement announced it was boycotting the polls scheduled to open this morning until technical hitches were sorted out.