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Traditional Courts and the Struggle against State Impunity for Civil Wartime Offences in Mozambique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2010

Victor Igreja
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Abstract

In the Mozambican context of the state amnesty for civil war crimes, war survivors have used their local ethics of reciprocity to create justice. This article analyses how survivors have attempted to persuade judges in traditional courts to adjudicate in serious wartime disputes. These judges, who have no official mandate to redress wartime offences, tried to preserve the conflicting interests of the litigants and the state. This positioning, coupled with the fact that the local ethics of reciprocity are embedded in uneven power and gender relations, resulted in some cases being adjudicated and others not, and in some disputes receiving no gender justice. Nevertheless, some of the interventions indicate that national and international institutions of justice are not the only ones engaged in the struggle against impunity for wartime crimes. In Mozambique, specific attention must be paid to the study of traditional justice mechanisms as fonts of redress for wartime crimes and for the long-term contribution they can make.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of African Law , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , April 2010 , pp. 51 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 2010

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