GOVERNMENT SETS UP FUND FOR DEMOBILISED SOLDIERS

The Mozambican government on Tuesday set up a “Peace and National Reconciliation Fund” to provide loans for demobilised soldiers to help guarantee their reinsertion into society.The idea for the fund had been floated by President Armando Guebuza on 5 September, at the ceremony where he and Afonso Dhlakama, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo, signed the agreement on a cessation of military hostilities. Speaking to reporters after the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers (Cabinet) the Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, said the find would finance economic and social projects of veterans of the independence war and of demobilised soldiers both from the armed forces and from Renamo. The widows of veterans and of demobilised soldiers can also benefit from the fund.“This fund has been created to promote the social and economic reinsertion of the former soldiers as well as to ensure the continued maintenance of peace and national reconciliation”, the Minister added.The Fund has its own administrative autonomy. It will be supervised by, but not subordinate to, the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs which must regularly submit reports on the fund’s activities to the Council of Ministers.Cuereneia said the Fund is intended to create jobs for former soldiers, and support their social and economic development projects. It will also build up the professional skills of its beneficiaries so that they will be more likely to find jobs on the labour market. Initially the fund will be financed from the state budget to the tune of at least ten million US dollars a year, but it will also identify alternative sources of finance. Cuereneia said it can accept contributions from businesses and individuals, donations granted by national and foreign institutions.It can also be financed by bank loans, by repayments of the loans it makes, and other sources which may later be identified. Cuereneia said the fund will have a General Assembly of nine members – two appointed by the government, four by the signatories to the agreement on cessation of hostilities (the government and Renamo), two representing bodies financing the fund, and one representative of Mozambican private business.An executive directorate will be responsible for the day to day management of the fund, consisting of two professionals chosen by public tender on the basis of their competence. There will also be a three member Supervisory Board, chosen by the General Assembly, which will monitor the financial management of the Fund and the legality of its activities. The government has also revoked the decree setting up the Veterans’ Social Reinsertion Fund, since this overlaps with the new fund. The Veterans’ Fund had been managed by the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs, and now all its assets will be transferred to the Peace and National Reconciliation Fund. Those assets will be used in the initial logistics necessary to establish the new fund.The exact number of people entitled to support from the Fund is not yet clear. Cuereneia said that from the government’s side there were about 100,000 potential beneficiaries (veterans of the independence war and soldiers demobilised in the post-independence period). But the government is not yet sure how many Renamo fighters would be covered, since Renamo is still refusing to deliver a list of the names of its “residual forces”. However, it is known, from the statistics of the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ), that in the 1994 demobilisation, prior to the first multi-party elections, 20,537 Renamo fighters were demobilised and returned to civilian life.Loan schemes run by the government have a poor record of repayment. Since 2006 the government has been operating a District Development Fund (FDD), which began as a transfer of seven million meticais (about 226,000 US dollars, at current exchange rates) from the state budget to each of the 128 districts. The money was to be lent to beneficiaries with viable projects that would create jobs and boost food security. Eight years later the bulk of these loans have not been repaid. This destroyed the initial hopes that the FDD would be a revolving fund, in which new loans would be financed out of the repayment of old ones.