/ 1 January 2002

Namibian’s protest tourist’s murder

Close to 300 Namibian people demonstrated peacefully on Tuesday in protest against the recent killing of a German tourist at Ameib, some 25km from Usakos, the Namibian Press Agency reported.

Renate Engeborg Gruber (48) died a week ago after the vehicle she was travelling in with her husband was shot at.

Renate’s husband Hermut Gruber (58) was wounded in the legs.

The mainly youthful demonstrators carried placards and marched to Usakos police station where they handed a petition to the station commander.

Some of the placards read: ”We the community of Usakos will make sure that the criminals are brought to justice”, ”Viva Tourists” and ”Usako’s Youth Against Crime know how to deal with these kind of criminals”.

Aksel Muafangeyo, chairman of Usakos Youth Against Crime, said the people of Usakos wanted to show the world that attacks on innocent people could not be tolerated any longer as there were many tourist attractions in the Erongo region that the world should see.

He appealed to the community at large to give information regarding the incident to the police.

The Namibian police and the Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations are offering a NAM20 000 reward to any person who comes forward with information that leads to the arrest of the murderers. – Sapa