A fifth mass grave has been found in northern Namibia, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news reported on Friday.
It is near the town of Ondangwa, once a major base of the former South African Defence Force (SADF).
The grave is only a kilometre away from where a forensic team confirmed the discovery of a fourth mass grave earlier on Friday.
Three others were found earlier near another former SADF base at Eenhana, close to the Angolan border.
The forensic experts could not disclose how many bodies of People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) fighters have been recovered up to date.
However, they are confident that a significant number of further mass graves will be found in the next few days. Earlier in the day, the remains of seven people were found.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says it has not been asked by either the Namibian or South African governments to investigate.
One former UN official, however, noted a South West African People’s Organisation incursion into Namibia on April 1 1989. The UN authorised the South African troops to leave their bases to deal with the issue.
Meanwhile, The Namibian newspaper reported that police in the Oshana and Ohangwena regions have been sent to four former South African army and police bases to search for more mass graves on the basis of information provided by the public.
The governor of Ohangwena, Usko Nghaamwa, told The Namibian that the officers have started digging at sites pointed out by informants.
He said some people who had served in the former SADF and Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit responded to President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s call for information on mass burials during the liberation struggle.
They singled out the former military bases at Okakwa, Ongha and Onhuno near the town of Ohangwena, as well as the old Koevoet base at Omungwelume, also in the Ohangwena region, he said.
”The media will be informed as soon as we have discovered something,” Nghaamwa said.
SA ‘ready to assist’
On Thursday, the South African government said it is ready to assist Namibia, if asked, in probing the discovery of mass graves.
”The government has noted with concern reports about mass graves in Namibia, allegedly perpetrated by the apartheid forces,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said. ”Should the Namibian authorities ask for assistance, the government stands ready to cooperate 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.”
The head of the UN team that supervised Namibia’s transition to independence in 1989 has reportedly denied any involvement in the mass graves.
SABC 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 UN 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