RENAMO

=== International dimension and Human Rights record ===
Apart from their primary supporters, initially the Rhodesian Central Intelligence Organisation until 1979<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lulat|first=Y. G.-M.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkVv3_-U56QC&dq=renamo+cio&pg=PA272|title=United States Relations with South Africa: A Critical Overview from the Colonial Period to the Present|date=2008|publisher=Peter Lang|isbn=978-0-8204-7906-4|pages=272|language=en}}</ref> and afterwards, the South African Directorate of Special Tasks (DST),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vines|first=Alex|date=2013-06-01|title=Renamo's Rise and Decline: The Politics of Reintegration in Mozambique|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13533312.2013.840087|journal=International Peacekeeping|volume=20|issue=3|pages=375–393|doi=10.1080/13533312.2013.840087|s2cid=143992994|issn=1353-3312}}</ref> RENAMO also enjoyed some level of international recognition, support and funding. [[Chester Crocker]], then the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in the US State Department, viewed RENAMO as "African Khmer Rouge". While RENAMO styled itself as "anti-communist", its brutal conduct and lack of political legitimacy made the organisation unsuitable as a partner, since it jeopardised the State Department attempts to gain rapport with the FRELIMO government and the Mozambican population, in order to increase the [[Western Bloc|Western Bloc's]] influence on the region.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Uhlig|first=Mark A.|date=1993-01-31|title=Reagan's Man in Africa|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/31/books/reagans-man-in-africa.html|access-date=2021-11-23|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9780822379423-008/html|chapter=7 Mozambique: Factions, Fights, and the Rejection of the Reagan Doctrine|date=1996-05-30|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-7942-3|language=en|doi=10.1515/9780822379423-008|title=Deciding to Intervene|pages=193–212|s2cid=242511510}}</ref> Contrary to that stance stood the active engagement of the far-right [[The Heritage Foundation|Heritage Foundation]] for the cause of RENAMO.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1992|title=Conspiciouos Destruction – War, Famine and the Reform Process in Mozambique. An African Watch|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/Mozamb927.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211113164138/https://www.hrw.org/reports/Mozamb927.pdf|archive-date=2021-11-13|access-date=2021-11-24|website=Human Rights Watch|pages=187}}</ref>

West German academic Andre Thomashausen and his mentor Werner Kaltefleiter served as vital links between West German right-wing conservative, anti-socialist political circles and RENAMO. Thomashausen is alleged to have had close links to both the West German and apartheid South African intelligence services, while being officially employed as a professor at the University of South Africa and in various managerial positions (in particular for West German corporations engaged in the apartheid economy) since 1982, when he moved to South Africa and immediately was granted citizenship by the National Party minority government. Thomashausen acted as a confidante and an advisor to the RENAMO leadership.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Thomashausen|first=Andre|date=2021-11-23|title=CURRICULUM VITAE PROF . DR. ANDRÉ THOMASHAUSEN|url=http://legesmundi.com/files/ThomashausenCV25Feb018.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215081005/http://legesmundi.com/files/ThomashausenCV25Feb018.pdf|archive-date=2020-02-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Paffenholz|first=Thania|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47254115|title=Konflikttransformation durch Vermittlung : theoretische und praktische Erkenntnisse aus dem Friedensprozess in Mosambik (1976-1995)|date=1998|publisher=Matthias-Grünewald|isbn=3-7867-2137-8|location=Mainz|pages=221–227|language=de|oclc=47254115}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=1998-01-23|title=Motshekga's mentor was Dr Renamo|url=https://mg.co.za/article/1998-01-23-motshekgas-mentor-was-dr-renamo/|access-date=2021-11-23|website=The Mail & Guardian|language=en-ZA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hall|first1=Margaret|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zug8jlH9lowC&dq=Thomashausen+Kaltefleiter+renamo&pg=PA134|title=Confronting Leviathan: Mozambique Since Independence|last2=Young|first2=Tom|date=1997|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-85065-115-4|pages=134|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Vuuren|first=Hennie Van|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-A3LuQEACAAJ&q=thomashausen|title=Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit|date=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-1-78738-097-4|pages=383|language=en}}</ref> A related network of West German RENAMO lobbyists evolved around Bavarian Prime Minister and leader of the conservative [[Christian Social Union in Bavaria|CSU]] party [[Franz Josef Strauss]]. The provincial leader engaged in his own far right foreign policy in support of apartheid and anti-socialist paramilitary forces in Southern Africa, thereby undermining the official [[Détente]] foreign policy of the West German federal government.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Hall|first1=Margaret|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zug8jlH9lowC&dq=strauss+renamo&pg=PA134|title=Confronting Leviathan: Mozambique Since Independence|last2=Young|first2=Tom|date=1997|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-85065-115-4|pages=134–136|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Vines|first=Alex|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9JyAAAAMAAJ&q=strauss|title=Renamo: From Terrorism to Democracy in Mozambique?|date=1996|publisher=Centre for Southern African Studies, University of York|isbn=978-0-85255-355-8|pages=41–42|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nesbitt|first=Prexy|date=1988|title=Terminators, Crusaders and Gladiators: Western (Private & Public) Support for Renamo & Unita|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4005762|journal=Review of African Political Economy|issue=43|pages=111–124|doi=10.1080/03056248808703796|jstor=4005762|issn=0305-6244}}</ref>

RENAMO conduct has frequently been described by western authors as amounting to [[terrorism]], especially since it usually involved attacks against defenseless civilians. The forcible recruitment of kidnapped villagers, including underage children, formed RENAMO's main modus operandi to increase its membership. This often included the murder of close relatives of the kidnapped persons, so that they had no way of returning to their communities.The organisation also engaged in brutal publicly staged ritual killings of perceived traitors and dissidents.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vines|first=Alex|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PxyAAAAMAAJ&q=children|title=Renamo: Terrorism in Mozambique|date=1991|publisher=Centre for Southern African Studies, University of York|isbn=978-0-253-36253-7|pages=90|language=en}}</ref><ref>Minter, William. ''The Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) as described by ex-participants''. Georgetown University, 1989.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Murphy|first=Caryle|date=1988-04-20|title=MOZAMBICAN REFUGEES DETAIL REIGN OF TERROR BY RENAMO|language=en-US|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/04/20/mozambican-refugees-detail-reign-of-terror-by-renamo/f4eb7d49-85de-4b21-a8fb-da66588b61b3/|access-date=2021-11-23|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>