Joaquim Chissano

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Joaquim Alberto Chissano (born October 22 1939) was the second president of Mozambique. He was president from November 6 1986 until February 2 2005.

Chissano was born in Chibuto village, Gaza Province, Mozambique. He was involved in the Frelimo movement in the 1960s, representing the group in Paris and fighting in the guerrilla war against Portugal. In 1975, when the country achieved independence, he gained the rank of major general and was appointed foreign minister of Mozambique. He was known as a soft-spoken diplomat who helped reconcile radical and moderate Marxists in the Frelimo party. He became president of the country in 1986, when Samora Machel's presidential aircraft crashed in mountainous terrain in South Africa.

After the end of the Mozambican Civil War, which saw the Renamo rebels become a regular political party, he won multi-party elections in 1994 and again in 1999. In 1999, he defeated the former RENAMO rebel leader, Afonso Dhlakama by 52.3% to 47.7%. Chissano chose not to run for another term in the elections of 2004; FRELIMO instead selected Armando Guebuza as its candidate, who defeated Dhlakama by an even bigger margin of votes. Chissano left office at the end of his term in February 2005. Chissano served as Chairman of the African Union from July 2003 to July 2004.

On 11 May 2006, the Mozambican news agency AIM reported that the Mozambican public prosecutor's office had charged Chissano's eldest son Nyimpine Chissano of "joint moral authorship" of the murder of Carlos Cardoso in 2000, and of unspecified economic crimes. AIM also quoted a report in the Mozambican journal Zambeze that a Maputo prosecutor, Fernando Canana, had issued an arrest warrant for Nyimpine Chissano which was subsequently suspended because of the personal intervention of former president Chissano and his wife.