Maputo — Mozambique's ruling Frelimo Party has declared that fighting to win this year's municipal elections will be a way of honouring the heroes who fell in the country's liberation struggle, and of "consolidating the ideals for which they gave their lives".

In a message marking Mozambican Heroes Day, 3 February, Frelimo declared "the elections should confirm the will of the Mozambican people to have the Frelimo Party leading them in building a prosperous, united and indivisible Mozambique".

"The experience gained over the 40 years of Frelimo's existence has inspired the confidence of Mozambicans in our party as the organisation which should head the destiny of the country", continued the message. "The municipal elections should express this confidence once again".

3 February marks the 34th anniversary of the assassination of the founder of Frelimo, Eduardo Mondlane, killed by a parcel bomb sent by the Portuguese secret police, the PIDE, to his office in Dar es Salaam.

The bomb which killed Mondlane, the Frelimo message said, "did not shake the determination of the Mozambican people. The blood of Mondlane cemented the patriotic and anti-colonial awareness of the Frelimo guerrillas and of Mozambicans in general".

The murder was "further evidence of the barbaric and cowardly nature of the Portuguese colonial-fascist system which did not hesitate to commit the most horrendous crimes in order to perpetuate its domination and exploitation of the Mozambican people".

"The ferocity of the enemy", the Frelimo message continued, "merely showed unequivocally that our struggle was just, and that unity among Mozambicans was one of the fundamental conditions for the successful pursuit of our people's struggle".

"Colonialism", Frelimo declared, "was a crime against the Mozambican people and against humanity. Independence was an indispensable condition for the people to live in peace and promote the economic and social development of the country without foreign interference".