H-1408              _______________________________________________

                                           HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 4011

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Representatives Belcher, Nelson, Jacobsen, R. Fisher, Anderson and Wineberry

Read first time 2/10/89 and referred to Committee on State Government.

TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

WHEREAS, The People's Republic of Mozambique's concerted efforts to construct a society in which people of all races enjoy equal political and civil rights contrasts dramatically with South Africa's racialist system known as apartheid; and

          WHEREAS, Mozambique's ports and railways potentially offer the landlocked countries of the subcontinent a means of bypassing South Africa to access world commodity markets and, therefore, pose a distinct threat to South Africa's economic dominance in the region; and

          WHEREAS, Since 1981, South Africa has conducted a campaign to destabilize the government of Mozambique, to destroy the Mozambican rural economy, and to dehumanize the Mozambican people; and

          WHEREAS, The Mozambique National Resistance, hereinafter referred to as RENAMO, is the principal agent by which this venal strategy is implemented; and

          WHEREAS, An April 1988 United States Department of State report conservatively estimates that RENAMO has murdered one hundred thousand Mozambican civilians in the past two years alone; and

          WHEREAS, One of RENAMO's principal methods of recruitment is to abduct young boys from Mozambican rural communities, often forcing them to murder relatives or other villagers as an act of initiation into its mercenary army; and

          WHEREAS, As a result of war-related disruptions in food cultivation and distribution, Mozambique faces an acute emergency situation affecting the lives of five million nine hundred thousand of its fourteen million citizens; and

          WHEREAS, Today two million two hundred thousand Mozambicans experience severe food shortages; and

          WHEREAS, One million one hundred thousand people are displaced within Mozambique, and an additional seven hundred thousand are refugees in other countries; and

          WHEREAS, Over the past year RENAMO has destroyed one thousand eight hundred primary schools, seven hundred twenty health clinics, nine hundred privately owned shops, and thirteen hundred trucks, buses, and tractors; and

          WHEREAS, A 1987 UNICEF study estimates that over three hundred twenty-five thousand children have died and two hundred fifty thousand children have been physically maimed, psychologically scarred, or orphaned as a result of RENAMO's violence; and

          WHEREAS, In violation of the nonaggression pact signed between Mozambique and South Africa in March 1984, South Africa has continued to support RENAMO; and

          WHEREAS, As recently as June 1988, the honorable Melissa Wells, the United States Ambassador to Mozambique, confirmed "a continuing pattern of South African contact with and support for RENAMO"; and

          WHEREAS, The Mozambican government has granted amnesty to rebels who lay down their arms; and

          WHEREAS, RENAMO could not continue to exist were it not for the money, weapons, training, and other assistance supplied primarily by South Africa;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the government of the United States of America will pressure the government of South Africa to cease funding RENAMO and to desist from all other efforts to destabilize the government of Mozambique.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the state of Washington, the Senate concurring, offer a special message of support and concern to the people of Mozambique; and

          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the state of Washington, the Senate concurring, oppose any efforts by governments, or by individuals and nongovernmental organizations, to support RENAMO; and

          BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable George Bush, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.