Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique (Portuguese: Moçambique or República de Moçambique, pron. IPA: [??'publik? d? mus?~'bik?]), is a country in southeastern Africa bordering to the Indian Ocean in the east, Tanzania in the north, Malawi and Zambia in the northwest, Zimbabwe in the west and Swaziland and South Africa in the southwest. It is a member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries and the Commonwealth of Nations.---------------------After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal maintained that Mozambique and other Portuguese possessions were overseas provinces of the mother country, and emigration to the colonies soared. Calls for Mozambican independence developed apace, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groups formed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which initiated an armed campaign against Portuguese colonial rule in September 1964. However, Portugal had occupied the country for more than four hundred years; not all Mozambicans desired independence, and fewer still sought change through armed revolution. Despite arms shipments by China and the Soviet Union, FRELIMO and other loosely linked armed guerilla forces proved no match for Portuguese counterinsurgency forces. After ten years of sporadic warfare, FRELIMO had not made appreciable progress towards capturing either significant amounts of territory or population centers. After a socialist-inspired military coup which overthrew the quasi-fascist Portuguese government of Antonio Salazar in 1974, Portugal determined to grant independence to its remaining colonies. Mozambique became independent on June 25, 1975... ------------------------------------------------- The last thirty years of Mozambique's history have reflected political developments elsewhere in the 20th century. Following the coup in Lisbon, Portuguese withdrew from Mozambique. In Mozambique, the military decision to withdraw occurred within the context of a decade of armed anti-colonial struggle, initially led by American-educated Eduardo Mondlane, who was assassinated in 1969. When independence was achieved in 1975, FRELIMO rapidly established a one-party state allied to the Soviet bloc and outlawed rival political activity. FRELIMO eliminated political pluralism, religious educational institutions, and the role of traditional authorities.-------------------------------The new government, under president Samora Machel, gave shelter and support to South African (ANC) and Zimbabwean (ZANU) liberation movements while the governments of first Rhodesia and later apartheid South Africa fostered and financed an armed rebel movement in central Mozambique called the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO). Hence, civil war, sabotage from neighboring states, and economic collapse characterized the first decade of Mozambican independence. Also marking this period were the mass exodus of Portuguese nationals and Mozambicans of Portuguese heritage, a weak infrastructure, government nationalization of privately owned industries and economic mismanagement. During most of the civil war, the government was unable to exercise effective control outside of urban areas, many of which were cut off from the capital. An estimated 1 million Mozambicans perished during the civil war, 1.7 million took refuge in neighboring states, and several million more were internally displaced. On October 19, 1986 Samora Machel was on his way back from an international meeting in Malawi in the presidential Tupolev Tu-134 aircraft when the plane crashed in the Lebombo Mountains, near Mbuzini. There were nine survivors but President Machel and twenty-four others died, including ministers and officials of the Mozambique government. The United Nations' Soviet delegation issued a minority report contending that their expertise and experience had been undermined by the South Africans. Representatives of the USSR advanced the theory that the plane had been intentionally diverted by a false navigational beacon signal, using a technology provided by military intelligence operatives of the apartheid government.-------------------------------Machel's successor, Joaquim Chissano, continued the reforms and began peace talks with RENAMO. The new constitution enacted in 1990 provided for a multi-party political system, market-based economy, and free elections. The civil war ended in October 1992 with the Rome General Peace Accords, brokered by the Community of Sant'Egidio. Under supervision of the ONUMOZ peacekeeping force of the United Nations, peace returned to Mozambique.---------------------------------By mid-1995 the more than 1.7 million Mozambican refugees who had sought asylum in neighboring Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa as a result of war and drought had returned, as part of the largest repatriation witnessed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Additionally, a further estimated four million internally displaced persons returned to their areas of origin.