JOHN GROBLER, Rundu | Tuesday
NAMIBIAN and Angolan security forces are carrying out illegal detentions and torturing prisoners in round-ups along their joint Kavango River border designed to crack down on Angolan rebels, local sources and human rights activists say.
Namibian police refuse to confirm or deny the existence of Operation Eagle, and insist that torture of detainees is forbidden.
But Josef Shindjukwe, 28, a former handyman, said he was arrested last month on false charges of owning an illegal gun. He said he had a woollen bag pulled over his head, after which he was beaten for several hours by members of Namibia’s paramilitary Special Field Force, and bound with plastic ties for three days. His forearms show scars.
Over the next 10 days, Shindjukwe said, he and other prisoners were beaten regularly. He said they were refused medical treatment, and that he now suffers from deafness in one ear as a result of his beatings.
Shindjukwe said many people were removed from the detention camp cells during his 10-day stay, with the women apparently moved to a UN-run camp while the men were deported to Angola.
Phil ya Nangoloh of the Namibian National Society for Human Rights said the men are handed over to the Angolan interior ministry, whereafter their fate is unknown.
“The Angolans are not exactly known for taking too many prisoners of war,” Ya Nangoloh said of the 25-year-old conflict.
Shindjukwe said he was released after a policeman he knew intervened in his case. The Namibian police would not confirm or deny his arrest.
Many local residents are openly supportive of Unita political cause, like 63-year-old Domingos Sekunda, who has been living in Namibia for the past 27 years and is a naturalised Namibian. Last week he was arrested by a large number of police and paramilitary forces who the family knew to be Angolans, said Sekunda’s oldest son Luciano.
“When we asked the police on what charges they were holding him, I was told it was because he did not publicly renounce Unita,” said Raphael Sekunda, another son.
Nightly raids on houses throughout the Rundu townships were a common occurrence, he added, estimating that “thousands” of people had been rounded up. – AFP