Ex-Mozambique Envoy Reportedly Joins Rebel Forces
Joao Ataide, former Mozambican ambassador to Portugal, has joined the Mozambican rebel movement as its public relations delegate for Europe, the Lisbon weekly Expresso newspaper reported.
A Lisbon-based spokesman for the Mozambique National Resistance would neither confirm nor deny the report. Ataide could not be reached for comment Sunday.
Ataide, in political exile in Lisbon, was Mozambique’s ambassador to Portugal from 1980 to 1982.
Expresso said Francisco Mascarenhas, another former embassy official and member of the Mozambican security police, is also expected to be named a guerrilla delegate.
The Mozambique National Resistance has fought the Marxist government for 10 years in the former Portuguese colony.
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