On Mon, 29 May 2006 21:52:20 +0200, "Robert Kay"
wrote:


Yeah - that wasn't nice of us, was it? But you'd think that after all these
years some rebuilding would have been done? And they asked for it. Anyway,
let bygones be bygones. Moz should ask the Chinese to help them. After all,
they built the Tanzam railways in the 60's.


Robert, I don't really want to get into an extended debate about this,
but sufice it to say that, regardless of who is right or wrong, "All's
fair in love and war". What the Rhodesians did was perfectly
understandable in the context of an army at war with another.
Tactically you can't fault the crippling of an enemy's railway system.
As for rebuilding, the Mozambiquans had enough to worry about for
years afterwards, to worry about rebuilding a railway system. By the
time they were in a position where they might have been able to repair
bridges, the railway lines were in chaos, and so the vicious cycle
starts.

I've travelled alongside the now defunct railway lines through large
parts of Mozambique, and from what I can see, it would be virtually
impossible to repair any of it. I'm constantly amazed at how far
explosives can throw a railway carriage. Starting from scratch would
be the only option, and that would cost far too much for a country
like Mozambique.

From my point of view, getting the Chinese involved would be like
signing away a birthright. The Mozambiquans would end up giving away
most of the country just to have a railway line, and that would be
disastrous in the long term.

Marc