The Role of the 1987 and 1992 Mozambican Amnesties in Establishing Peace in Maputo, 1987 - 2020

In 1992, Mozambique was the poster child of successful peace processes in Africa. This peace was widely attributed to Mozambique’s amnesty laws. However, emerging incidences of conflict since 2017 have question the role of these amnesties in establishing peace in Mozambique. Since gaining independence from Portugal in 1975 the Mozambique Liberation Front (and the Mozambican National Resistance (have held its political power. The FRELIMO led government signed the 14/87 amnesty aimed at forgetting the offences of all Mozambican citizens committed up to until 1987. With continuing tensions, the 1992 GPA was signed by FRELIMO and RENAMO Shortly later, the 15/92 amnesty law was signed by both political parties to forget all atrocities from 1987 to 1992. While both amnesties aimed at forgiving past crimes, this study investigate d whether establishing peace was also an outcome of their signing. This study ’s objectives were to: analyze the impact of the 1987 amnesty law on establishing peace in Mozambique examine the impact of the 1992 amnesty law on establishing peace in Mozambique, and to find out how the 1987 and 1992 amnesty laws impacted on subsequent attempts to realize peace in Maputo. Through 70 face to face interviews, 1 focus group discussion, and 10 story telling sessions in Maputo, this study found that amnesties failed to establish peace in Mozambique Lederach’s Conflict Transformation and Kaldor’s New Wars theoretical framework informed the analysis of the findings, and advised recommendations to implement a multi-faceted accountability framework and to incorporate peace partnerships with external actors for peace to be a reality.