29
91.
The N'djukas had their right to the project of life, as well as their right to the project of
after-life, violated, and continuously so, ever since the State-planned massacre perpetrated in
the Moiwana village on 29.11.1986. They suffered material and immaterial damages, as well
as spiritual damage. Some of the measures of reparations ordered by the Court in the present
Judgment duly stand against oblivion, so that this atrocity never occurs again. Such is the case
of the State's duty to investigate the facts and to try and sanction those responsible for them;
the State's duty to find and identify the mortal remains of the victims of the massacre of
Moiwana village and to pass them on to the survivors of the Moiwana Community; the State's
duty to secure the safe return to, and resettlement in, the Moiwana village of all those
forcefully displaced from it; the State's duty to implement a fund of community development;
the State's apologies to the victims, and the building of a monument in memory and honour of
the victims of the massacre of 1986106.
92.
In sum, the wide range of reparations ordered by the Court in the present Judgment in
the Moiwana Community case appears well in keeping with the recognizedly rich case-law of
the Inter-American Court on the matter, which, as widely acknowledged107, has concentrated
on, and enhanced the centrality of, the position of the victims, - as well as on devising a wide
range of possible and adequate means of redress. In the cas d'espèce, the collective memory
of the Maroon N'djukas is hereby duly preserved, against oblivion, honouring their dead, thus
safeguarding their right to life lato sensu, encompassing the right to cultural identity, which
finds expression in their acknowledged links of solidarity with their dead.
93.
It is incumbent upon all of us, the still living, to resist and combat oblivion, so
commonplace in our post-modern, ephemeral times. The dead need our faithfulness, they are
entirely depended upon it108. The duties of the living towards them are thus not limited to
securing respect for their remains and to granting them a proper burial; such duties also
encompass perennial remembrance. They need our remembrance today and tomorrow, just as
much as we needed their advice and care yesterday. Time, thus, instead of keeping us apart,
on the contrary, brings all of us - the living and the dead - together. This, in my view, ascribes
an entirely new dimension to the links of solidarity between the living and their dead.
Remembrance is a manifestation of gratitude, and gratitude is perhaps the noblest
manifestation of rendering true justice.
Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade
Judge
Pablo Saavedra-Alessandri
Secretary
. Decisory points ns. 1-8.
106
. Cf., e.g., I. Bottigliero, Redress for Victims of Crimes under International Law, Leiden,
Nijhoff, 2004, pp. 111 and 144, and cf. pp. 176-177 and 183.
107
. N. Wachtel, "Mémoire marrane", in Devoir de mémoire..., op. cit. supra n. (104), p. 128.
108
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