Accountability, Remorse and Reconciliation: Lessons from South Africa, Mozambique and Rwanda

Between October 1992 and July 1994, three countries in sub-Saharan Africa had the opportunity to terminate internal conflicts characterized by the widespread commission of atrocities. In October 1992, the leaders of Mozambique’s Frelimo government and the Renamo insurgency concluded a General Peace Agreement (GPA) ending a violent 15-year rebellion. In April 1994, South Africa held its first one-person-one-vote election, marking the close of four centuries of subjugation of the country’s non-white majority;1 and in July 1994, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) seized power from the genocidal clique that ruled Rwanda and brought hope of an end to the pervasive Hutu-Tutsi divide.