KERRY MAN IN MOZAMBIQUE WAR HOSTAGE DRAMA
STATE PAPERS TELL STORY OF KERRYMAN HELD CAPTIVE DURING 1980’S CONFLICT.
UNLIKE other African wars in Somalia and Ethiopia the mid 1980s civil war in Mozambique garnered little international attention but, according to newly released state papers, one Kerryman became caught up in the worsening conflict in 1985.
The latest batch of state papers – for 1986 – released under the 30-year-rule contain details of the kidnapping of an Irish engineer in Mozambique in 1985 and the behind the scenes efforts that went into securing his release.
After wining independence from Portugal in 1975 Mozambique’s Government – led by the Frelimo freedom movement – set about developing and modernising the country.
As part of this effort Frelimo aligned itself with the USSR and China with the ultimate aim of building a socialist state in the large southern African nation.
Frelimo also began providing support to freedom fighters in Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe – and South Africa and it was this action that sowed the seeds of civil war in Mozambique.
In a major effort at destabilization, the White minority regime in Rhodesia trained and armed conservative Mozambicans to begin a guerrilla war against Frelimo.
Rhodesia’s aim was to tie down Frelimo and prevent it from offering any substantial support to the rebels in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.
The civil war started in 1977 when the Rhodesian backed rebels – officially referred to as the Mozambican National Resistance (MNR) but more commonly known as Renamo – launched a vicious terrorist campaign against Frelimo and its supporters.
Renamo’s tactic’s were vicious and seemingly no target was off limits.
Renamo soldiers are known to have regularly committed mass civilian killings; raped and mutilated countless women and forced thousands of child soldiers into battle.
Kidnapping was another tool often employed by Renamo and this was how 26-year-old Rathmore native John O’Connell came to be involved in the conflict.
Having worked at Liebherr’s plant in Killarney for a number of years O’Connell and his wife moved to South Africa in the early 1980’s where he took up a job with Durban based plant equipment firm Tech Serv.
His work with Tech Serv would see O’Connell and a British colleague dispatched to Mozambique in mid 1985 to carry out technical repairs and upgrades on equipment at a sugar plantation factory on the banks of the Zambezi River in an isolated area close to the east coast in central Mozambique.
In late July 1985 – not long after O’Connell had arrived in the area – Renamo troops descended on the plantation and took all of its workers and all inhabitants of the nearby village of Luabo hostage.
Communication in the region was difficult and it was several days before the Irish Government learned that an Irish citizen had been reported kidnapped in Mozambique.
The report from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) came on August 1.
A press source was able to give Irish diplomats a phone number for Mr O’Connell’s wife in Durban and she was contacted within a day.
Mr O’Connell asked that she be allowed notify Mr O’Connell’s parents – who were living in Headford – about what had happened.
She was concerned that it would be too shocking for Mr O’Connell’s family back home to learn of the situation from gardaí or a Government source and it would be better if she could tell them.
Unfortunately – as there was no phone in Mr O’Connell’s parent’s home – the news had to be sent by telegram and by the time the message reached Headford from South Africa the family had already been contacted and told about the situation by a member of the press.
As the days wore on more information slowly began to emerge about the situation facing John O’Connell and his colleagues.
It transpired that while the plantation and town were in rebel hands Mr O’Connell and his British colleague were in good heath, were being treated well and were able to move freely around Luabo, though not out of the village.
By mid August the British Government made informal contact with Renamo.
The FCO told Irish diplomats that the conditions for O’Connell and his British co-worker Mr Blakey’s release were expected soon after.
This led to some debate at the Department of Foreign Affairs as to how any discussions could or should be handled.
First Secretary at the Department of Foreign Affairs Anne Barrington – who Irish Ambassador to Japan – said that initially it might be more prudent to let the British handle the negotiations.
“As things stand I feel we should not become directly involved. To put Renamo in the position of negotiating with two government’s would add to the political capital they may gain from the event and might also lead to attempts by them to play one against the other,” she wrote in a briefing memo.
Barrington also felt holding back while Britain negotiated could allow further opportunities to rescue Mr O’Connell if the British talks failed.
“Should there be a difficulty with regard to the kind of acknowledgement required at the hand over we might have to intervene. It is possible that elements unacceptable to UK could be less so for us,” Barrington wrote.
The British FCO were also of the opinion that the Irish Government should remain behind the scenes as the negotiations continued.
The FCO said it had made no reference to Ireland in its talks with Renamo agents and according to Barrington had told the Irish that “it might be wiser at this stage for us (Ireland) not to be involved.”
The FCA had added that it would also be politically prudent as Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Peter Barry “would be in a position to say he had not negotiated with or been in contact with Renamo.”
This view was not entirely shared by Art Agnew of the Irish Government’s Consula Section.
Writing to Ms Barrington he said that while Ireland wasn’t in a position to negotiate Ireland should at least talk to Renamo.
“In my view (but in Consular it is not my function to decide) we cannot ‘negotiate’ as we have e.g. no prisoners here or or [an] other bargaining tool; we should however ‘ talk’ with the devil himself if necessary to have our citizen released.” he wrote.
Discussions continued for weeks – with Kerry Labour TD Michael Moynihan keeping O’Connell family informed of all developments – with Renamo demanding that the British would give them legitimacy by signing a document verifying a formal agreement to secure the kidnapped men’s release.
John O’Connell’s ordeal finally ended on September 7, 1985 over a month after the rebels had arrived at the sugar plantation.
In Lisbon Renamo’s agents announced that a large group of the rebels’ prisoners – including O’Connell and Blakey – had been released in near the Malawian border in the Tete district of north-western Mozambique. The location was over 360 kilometres from where John O’Connell and his colleague had been captured.
The group – which reportedly included O’Connell, Blakey, two Italians Priests and 25 or 26 Portuguese citizens – wasn’t actually found for three more days.
Soldiers from Mozambique and Malawi aided by British FCO staff searched the Tete region for two days but no sign of the group could be found.
By September 10 – according to a memo from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs’ Africa Section – the Portuguese Government were “beginning to feel apprehensive about the fate of the many Portuguese nationals who were stated to have been released
The drama finally came to an end that evening when a dispatch from the British FCO arrived in the Irish embassy in London confirming that all the hostages – including John O’Connell – had been found and rescued in Malawi.