David Beresford
NAMIBIAN security forces, acting with the encouragement of President Sam Nujoma, have been accused of responsibility for the murders and disappearance of 1 768 Angolans on its northern borders.
The claim has been made by a Namibian human rights group, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), which has been monitoring the alleged atrocities since they began in 1994. The society’s report, released to the Mail & Guardian this week, claims the atrocities began after the murder of three Namibians – an action set up to justify a state terror campaign in the region.
The alleged attacks have been taking place near Namibia’s north-western frontier, bordering on the Angolan province of Cuando-Cubango which is controlled by that country’s rebel movement, Unita.
Nujoma’s government has been supportive of Angola’s MPLA government in the long- running civil war with Unita. It seems that, from the start, the terror campaign has been aimed at harassing Unita supporters.
The shock report by the NSHR coincides with talks this week between Nujoma and Congo- Kinshasa’s Laurent Kabila in the Namibian capital of Windhoek. Kabila is also hostile to Unita, which was allowed by deposed president Mobutu to use the former Zaire as a springboard for attacks in Angola.
There has been speculation that the Angolan government, with support from Namibia and Congo, may be planning a new military offensive against Unita. This would shatter the country’s fragile peace settlement.
NSHR says in its report – A Silent War along the North-Eastern Frontier – that the border atrocities were precipitated by the killings of three Namibian men and the rape of a woman in the Mukwe area, about 180km east of the town of Rundu, on September 27 1994.
At the time, Nujoma described the murders as a “well-planned and executed terrorist attack” carried out by Unita “bandits” which represented “a direct threat and challenge to the Constitution”.
But, says the NSHR, it has been “reliably informed” that the murders were the work of three soldiers flown into Namibia via Windhoek, “apparently from Botswana”. It says the soldiers were under the supervision of “a certain Geraldo, himself attached to the Angolan embassy in Gaborone, Botswana. They were apparently transported to the Okavango region to commit criminal acts which would then be blamed on Unita bandits.”
Two days after the murders, Nujoma announced on national television that the border with Angola was being closed, illegal immigrants were being cleared from the region and anyone crossing in future would be “severely dealt with”. The border areas are populated by ethnic groups who traditionally move freely between the two countries.
The NSHR says that, since the crackdown was announced, a virtual State of Emergency has been imposed on the north-western region and there has been a steady stream of reports of atrocities – primarily the work of the First Battalion of the Namibian Defence Force under the command of a Colonel Thomas Shuuya.
Listing the names of 35 people known to have been “shot, or beaten to death”, the report says hundreds of people have gone missing – many being handed over to Angolan government forces, never to be seen again.
Issues discussed by Kabila and Nujoma at this week’s talks included proposals to build a pipeline from the Congo river to supply desperately-needed water to Namibia.
The Namibian leader is expected to press for the admission of the Congo to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) at its next summit, in September.