Mozambique’s post-war success story: Is it time to revisit the narrative?

Over the past years since the signing of the Rome peace Accords, Mozambique has generally been regarded as an exemplary African post war success story. However, events in the last four years illuminate something different. This article will show that the low intensity but violent clashes between FRELIMO government forces and former rebel group RENAMO are not just a mere manifestation of Mozambican’s government inability to consolidate post war gains. These clashes could be framed and located within the broader context of complexities associated with transforming a peace Accord into a genuine and sustainable postwar peace dividend. It seems the success was largely registered in terms of reducing direct violence by creating negative peace. Even though negative peace was good, it was unfortunately not adequate. This article also argues that the success narrative lulled many including Mozambicans into ignoring fissures in the area of structural violence which effectively limited the country’s ability to progress towards positive peace. Despite all this, however, this article will concur with the belief that an outright full scale war is still highly improbable, but not impossible because RENAMO is still capable of spoiling and eroding the registered post war gains.     

On Soviet‐German relations: The debate continues—A review article

Aleksandr M. Nekrich, Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German‐Soviet Relations, 1922–1941. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, xiv + 308 pp., £28.00.     

MANY YEARS AFTER THE PARENTAL ABDUCTION

Little longitudinal data are available on what happens to families in which there has been a parental abduction. This article reports on information on 48 families who have been followed for a number of years after the recovery of a missing child. It focuses on questions relevant to the courts: the use of mediation services preabduction, contact between the abductor and the children and the abductor and the searching parent, the payment of child support and restitution for the search, the legal ramifications to the abductor, and the preparations parents took to prevent another abduction.     

Women prisoners and the law: Which way will the pendulum swing?

Women prisoners have had avenues to legal assistance open to them for several years. Even though it has been possible for them to seek recourse in the courts, many barriers to this help remain in place. This article focuses on how women prisoners and women's prisons can change through litigation.