Healing the wounds of past conflicts: Mozambique opts for a culture of peace.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed the year 2000 as the International Year for the Culture of Peace, to serve as a means to engage people at all levels in a common endeavour towards a global movement for a culture of peace.

The signing of the General Peace Agreement in October 1992 in Rome between the Government of the Republic of Mozambique and the Resistencia Nacional Mozambicana (RENAMO) was indicative of the willingness of the Mozambican people to end the scourge of violence of 30 years of successive wars, remove negative external factors, put aside the divergences that were created among different sectors of the society, and capitalize on factors that contribute to national unity, tolerance and mutual respect.

After several efforts, namely the 1984 Nkomati Accord on good neighbourliness and peaceful coexistence with South Africa and other similar initiatives, the General Peace Agreement finally secured the silence of guns. The understanding marked, above all, the beginning of a new era in the history of the people of Mozambique, an era of continuous dialogue in a society where tolerance, unity in diversity, and respect for individual freedoms and the rule of law arc now nurtured.

Notwithstanding this encouraging scenario, the question always arose: how to heal the wounds of war?

Everyone has experienced immeasurable pain in their hearts as a result of war. Hatred has been sown in every one of us.

By embarking on the path of forgiveness, tolerance and reconciliation-the essence of the culture of peace-Mozambique chose a formula that would lead to lasting peace, based on the country's specific conditions, thus laying the foundation for the country's sustainable development.

The success of this choice is hard to deny. It resulted in the strengthening of a multiparty system based on the country's 1990 Constitution, which created a new political and judicial framework in the country, consolidated peace and laid the foundation of a democratic society based on the universal principles of freedom and equality before the law.

All these elements have played a decisive role in improving the living standards of the Mozambican people.

Despite its success in strengthening peace, the people of Mozambique cannot afford to rejoice as long as conflicts, or the potential for conflicts, persist elsewhere in Africa.

For this reason, Mozambique has actively participated in initiatives by the United Nations, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organization of African Unity, other regional organizations and individual States, in search of lasting solutions to the conflicts that still ravage some African States and other countries and regions. The concept of Culture of Peace is a set of values, attitudes and behaviours, ways of living and acting, based on respect for life, the dignity and rights of the human person, rejection of violence, including all forms of terrorism, and commitment to the principles of freedom, justice, solidarity, tolerance and understanding among all people, all groups in society and among individuals.

The culture of peace means, above all, the spirit of nonviolence, of conformity with the reality that retaliation can never restore what war has destroyed. This spirit can help us to develop the sense of the value of life above and beyond the sequels of the past, to revive the memory of what was lost during war, to work hard with dignity to restore the broken spirits and the country's economic, social and cultural fabric.

Thanks to this spirit, those who were once associated with the war of destabilization can today find it possible to repent and regain the moral values of peace, reconciliation and coexistence with their fellow citizens. This approach to the country's reality has made it possible for Mozambicans, regardless of race, colour, ethnicity, tribe, culture, political or religious belief, to work together for the reconstruction and economic development of the country. This is the spirit of unity in diversity that underlies recent economic and social progress the country has achieved.

The exercise of such a noble culture entails the ability to exhibit a sense of uprightness on a daily basis, by refusing to respond to acts which reflect a lack of education and of respect for the human person that others display. It entails responding to violence and lawlessness through positive attitudes that can ensure continued strong relationships between the various segments of society, thus preventing those who are determined to instil negative values in the society from trying to change the inherently peaceful nature of the people of Mozambique. Underlying this definition is the vision of the culture of peace as a means of strengthening peace itself by ensuring the development of the material and spiritual conditions that can contribute to conflict prevention and restoration of peace once a conflict is over.

As far as the restoration of peace in a post-conflict situation is concerned, it is worth taking into account the challenge of creating conditions for reuniting families, reintegrating demobilized soldiers, and resettling former refugees and displaced populations, which will help all the se groups to return to a productive life and experience once again stable social lives. Disputes over limited resources and the difficulties relating to social and economic integration of such groups can easily degenerate into violent struggles. Above all, it is essential to meet basic needs in education and health for children and provide equal opportunities for women.

Peace cannot last while such phenomena as poverty, social exclusion and crime persist, eroding the foundations of the society and hampering the process of development. Our own experience teaches us that, on its own, attempting to attain consensus between former rival groups can never guarantee lasting peace. It is the pursuit of reconciliation and tolerance not only among politicians and the political elite but also, and more so, between families and communities in general.

Culture is unitary. The ideas of peace and non-violence should be disseminated and transformed into an intrinsic part of the collective conscience of the people. Civil society, in particular the mass media, civic associations, trade unions and religious organizations should create harmony even when the re is a concerted effort to punish abuses and wrongdoings.

We are all responsible for the maintenance of peace in all its elements and facets. It is, therefore, necessary that a moral contract for peace should be promoted, with emphasis on development of new mental and practical attitudes in our public social life. Apart from Mozambique, one can cite the examples in El Salvador and Nicaragua where former belligerents are working hand in hand to build a new society both on the economic front, as well as through implementing fundamental changes in the military and in social and political life. In as much as the se experiments must have taken into account the specific national concerns in those countries, they may probably be far from achieving total success in eliminating situations that are likely to cause conflicts. Nevertheless, they constitute landmark achievements in the pacification of such protracted conflicts.

The culture of peace is based on universally accepted fundamental principles of human coexistence, full participation of all citizens, and transparency in decision making and in the management of public affairs. It derives from the constant search for consensus, values of unity and harmony, and the peaceful settlement of differences. In this regard, diversity is seen as a cultural asset, a positive factor to value and promote.

Education for peace is vested with particular importance in conflict prevention, since it is firstly and ultimately in the minds of men that the ideas can be found that are likely to manifest themselves in violence. A moral contract for peace should be cultivated by teaching the younger generation, inculcating in them attitudes that can contribute to a future peaceful Mozambique. If it is true that it is in its early stages that one can twist a cucumber, then let us guide your youth towards a future of peace, tolerance, dialogue and mutual solidarity.

The culture of peace is the best heritage we can bestow on future generations, as we prepare ourselves to face the challenges of the twenty-first century.

President Chissano contributed this article at the request of the UN Chronicle. The artwork on the opposite page is from the painting Reconstrucao, by Mozambican artist Naguib Abdullah.