Mozambique Soldiers Disarm, Fight for Discharge : Africa: As part of a U.N.-sponsored plan for multi-party elections, troops of the formerly Marxist government and the Renamo guerrilla movement slowly are being mustered out.

After 15 years of civil war, the soldiers at Catemba are fighting again--for faster processing of their discharge papers.

Government soldiers, like the rebels they battled, are going home. At last, their leaders have acknowledged there can be no winner in one of Africa’s longest wars.

About 600,000 people died and 1 million fled the former Portuguese colony during the war, which ended in 1992 with a peace agreement signed by President Joaquim Chissano and rebel leader Afonso Dhlakama. The cease fire has held and refugees are returning.

As part of a U.N.-sponsored plan for the first multi-party elections, scheduled for Oct. 27-28, troops of the formerly Marxist government and the Renamo guerrilla movement slowly are being mustered out.

Weeks after waving machetes and iron rods to emphasize their desire to go home, 337 of the soldiers at Catemba did just that in June.

“I’m very happy because I’m going to restart my life,” said Assubihi Sovia. He spent three months at Catemba waiting to get out, with little to do but play cards and soccer.

U.N. rules require that all soldiers and rebel fighters gather at 49 transit camps, turn in their weapons and go back to civilian life before the elections.

Financial and logistic problems have slowed the process--elections were originally scheduled last October. Impatience among the men has led to protests like the one at Catemba, a dilapidated former army training base on the Indian Ocean coast a ferry ride from Maputo, the capital.

Most of the former soldiers have been able to leave Catemba, but more than 100 still do not know when they will either be demobilized or sent to be trained for a new 30,000-man national army of former soldiers and rebels.

A few of those left behind gathered to see off the lucky ones, but most wait listlessly on cots in a warehouse-like barracks with a concrete floor.

“In Mozambique or in Africa in general they take their time,” said Tom Pardon, the Dutch administrator of the U.N. demobilization staff. “But my feeling about the whole process is quite positive. We have had no major confrontations since the peace treaty was signed.”

Most of the estimated 15,000 rebel fighters have shown up at the 20 transit camps assigned to them, but only 35,000 of the 50,000 government soldiers to be demobilized have checked in at their 29 sites.

By June, only about 2,000 members of the new army had been trained. Behrooz Sadry, second in command for the U.N. operation, predicted that no more than 11,000 would be ready by the elections.

Britain, France, Portugal and Zimbabwe have contributed trainers, and Italy also might help. Aldo Ajello, chief of the 6,000-member U.N. mission, said the help would continue until the new army is complete.

In addition to the soldiers and guerrillas, 155,000 members of government militias were told to hand in their uniforms and weapons.

Ajello insists that all fighting forces be disarmed before the election in order to avoid a repeat of Angola, where Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA rebels rejected their election loss in 1992 and resumed fighting.

He also feels, however, that Mozambique is different because the rank and file on both sides are tired of fighting. “The first one to go to tell the troops they must start fighting again, they will start fighting him,” Ajello said.

Paulo Fopenze Zingue, a soldier at Catemba, agreed.

“Tell Dhlakama and Chissano that I don’t want any more war--that’s why I’m going home,” he said, crouching in the sand to examine the clothing and food he had received from the United Nations and other agencies to help him make a start in civilian life.

Zingue, 47, fought for 21 years--first against Portuguese colonialists until independence in 1975, then against Renamo.

He and each of the others going home was given a bucket of seeds and a set of farming tools when they boarded buses for home.

They also got the equivalent of three months’ pay in cash, a voucher for another three months redeemable in their home provinces, and a “checkbook” for 18 additional monthly payments.

The monthly allowances generally match their pay, which ranged from the equivalent of $150 a month for the bottom ranks to $2,000 for commanders. The government pays the first six months, the United Nations the remaining 18.