WEDNESDAY, 3.00PM
NAMIBIAN authorities on Wednesday denied claims made a fornight ago that security forces have killed 1 768 people, mostly Angolan refugees, in the north-east of the country, but confirmed that seven deaths are being investigated.
The Windhoek-based National Society of Human Rights in June 1994 said that 376 people had either been shot dead, clubbed to death or disappeared in the Okavango and Caprivi regions of Namibia, bordering Angola, at the hands of security forces. On July 8, the NSHR released a report claiming that 1 768 people, mainly from Angola’s Cuando Cubango province, had been killed or disappeared in the region where the border between the two counties was closed in 1994.
“The NSHR allegations … are grossly misleading and exaggerated, and thus devoid of any truth,” Defence Minister Philemon Malima said in Windhoek on Tuesday, following a government fact-finding trip to the region. He said those interviewed were shocked to hear of the alleged killings and disappearances.
A police probe had revealed that 29 of those listed as dead or missing were found to be working in Rundu, living in outlying areas of Caprivi and Okavango, or at the Osire refugee camp in central Namibia. Malima urged the NSHR to in future verify its reports with the ministries of defence and home affairs before “unleashing” distorted statements.