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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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The politics of reconciliation and violence in the post-civil war Mozambique
| Panel |
49. The politics of healing and justice in post-conflict societies: Global discourses and local realities
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| Paper ID | 810 |
| Author(s) |
IGREJA, Victor
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | The objective of this paper is to describe and analyse the Mozambican reconciliation process as the political authorities conceived and implemented as part of the transitional phase. In the wake of the General Peace Agreement (AGP) in October 4 1992 the main belligerents represented by Frelimo and Renamo leaders, opted for an official reconciliation strategy that attempted to launch into the garbage bin of history, their shared past loaded with gross human rights violations and crimes against civilian populations. The official authorities did not develop any political or legal mechanism to settle accounts with the main actors responsible for the commission of violent acts against civilians during the civil war violence. This paper explores the positions of various political and civil society members on the relevance of creating a truth and reconciliation commission in Mozambique after 15 years of peace.
The paper concludes by suggesting that in the process of peace-making both Frelimo and Renamo were responsible for the complete failure in initiating a thorough investigation of the atrocious past as part of the reconciliation process; whereas in the context of democratic stabilization, the Frelimo party bears the main opprobrium. Frelimo cadres systematically inveighed against the promotion of official reconciliation initiatives at a national scale that could revisit the horrors of the past in order to clarify and determine individual and collective responsibilities, formally acknowledge the past and present suffering of the war victims, and draw lessons for the present and future of the country. The constant refusal to formally investigate and clarify the past strikingly suggests that the Frelimo party is a serious obstacle in the development of a culture of political transparency and accountability in Mozambique. The overall consequence of the politics of denial is that it represents another form of violence since the suffering of the war victims remain unacknowledged and the war abuses and crimes were not morally de-legitimised and reprehended. |
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