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Angop (File photo) / Former President of Mozambique Joaquim Chissano
Former Mozambican president Joaquim Chissano has admitted having a connection with the KGB, the former USSR secret services, but denies having been a spy. Chissano says relations were limited to the provision of aid to Frelimo, the ruling party in Mozambique.
“Yes, there was a connection, and that connection was that I had military training in the Soviet Union. One of the subjects in which I was trained was precisely [getting] the intelligence to penetrate into the enemy zone. I am talking about the Portuguese,” an interview published on Friday by weekly Savana reports.
In March, the Portuguese weekly Expresso revealed, based on declassified documents, that Chissano has collaborated with the Soviet intelligence services under the code name “Tzom”.
Asked if the collaboration with the KGB meant giving them information, Chissano said, “Yes, I had to give [information], but it was not as much as they say, like a spy – it was for the purpose of [Frelimo] benefitting from Soviet Union support”.
Chissano’s links with the KGB lasted from 1966 to 1968 and were necessary to support the Liberation Front of Mozambique (Frelimo) in its fight for independence from Portugal, achieved on 25 June 1975.
“Through the KGB, we received money. It was not for me, but for Frelimo – to help us carry out our intelligence and counterintelligence work for the protection of Frelimo itself and the search for information about the other side [the Portuguese],” Chissano emphasised.
Chissano said he began to lose interest in collaborating with the KGB because, with changes of personnel at the Soviet embassy in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, where Frelimo had its headquarters during the war of independence, the training he received ceased to be relevant
Asked about the alleged involvement of the KGB in the death of his predecessor, Samora Machel, who lost his life in 1986 in a mysterious plane crash, Chissano says he considers the scenario mere speculation, and points out that the Soviet Union had confidence in the Mozambican president of the time.
“This is mere speculation. I must read this article because I have not yet seen what they are saying, because, you know, it can be a dream (…) Samora was never a problem for the Soviets, but I do not know if the things would have changed, I do not know. But if that wasn’t the case, the Soviets would have not given us the support they did,” Chissano said, referring to the cooperation between the former USSR and Frelimo which continued after independence.
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