The South African government stood ready to assist Namibia, if asked, in probing the recent discovery of mass graves in that country.
”The government has noted with concern reports about mass graves in Namibia, allegedly perpetrated by the apartheid forces,” Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said on Thursday.
”Should the Namibian authorities ask for assistance, the government stands ready to co-operate and assist them on this matter.
”However, we have not been officially requested to assist, even though there have been informal contacts.”
Mamoepa would not elaborate on the type of assistance South Africa could possibly provide.
”We are confident that when the Namibian authorities are ready to do so, they will ask the South African government for assistance.”
Three mass graves have been found near the apartheid-era South African military base, Eenhana, about 850km north-east of Windhoek.
The bones are thought to be those of fighters from the South West African People’s Organisation’s military wing, Plan, who may have been killed in the so-called nine-day war in April 1989.
The base was home to the SA Army’s 54 Battalion during the latter part of the 1966-1989 border war.
Construction workers discovered the first mass grave containing human bones and ammunition about 400m from the base.
The head of the United Nations team that supervised Namibia’s transition to independence in 1989 has reportedly denied any involvement in the mass graves.
South African Broadcasting Corporation radio news on Wednesday quoted Finnish diplomat Martti Ahtisaari as saying: ”… I can’t believe that those mass graves would have occurred while the UN was there”.
Ahtisaari was head of the United Nations Transitional Assistance Group during Namibia’s move to independence.
”I sincerely hope that this will be properly investigated and I think it’s obvious that the best answers can and should be [had] from the South African military, who were in charge of the whole activity at the time,” Ahtisaari told the SABC.
The broadcaster said South African apartheid-era defence minister Magnus Malan had suggested the UN could shed light on the mass graves as it was then in charge of the transition process. – Sapa