We Saw It All'
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"WE SAW IT ALL' "WE SAW IT ALL' " , I dited by Denis M'Passou CIMS OBSERVERS' REPORTS EDITED BY: DENIS B M'PASSOU PUBLISHED BY: CHURCHES INFORMATION AND MONITORING SERVICE P 0 BOX 60196, KATUTURA, NAMIBIA COPYRIGHT: CIMS 1990 FOREWORD Millions of words have been written about the struggle for Namibia, about the role of the League of Nations, the United Nations, the Liberation Movement and about the role of the Churches. All these parties have played a role in the liberation of Namibia and - though at varying degrees - they have made a decisive contribution which in the end culminated in the United Nations supervised elections in Namibia for the election of the first ever Constituent Assembly, which in turn would draft a constitution for Namibia. As I am writing these words, the Namibian constitution is in place. It was adopted on the 9th February 1990 setting the stage for the long awaited Namibian independence, scheduled for 21 March 1990. The culmination of all these developments can be summed up in one word: THE FUTURE OF NAMIBIA WILL NOT BE WHAT IT USED TO BE. When the Executive of the Council of Churches in Namibia (CCN) hurriedly established the Churches Information and Monitoring Service (CIMS) on the last dayof March1989,theyhad one aim inmind: tomaximise scrutiny of the transitional dispensation with the creation of a network of monitoring structures around the country through which (national and international) observers would be deployed to monitor the process, in the hope that the implementing parties (South Africa and UNTAG) as well as the Namibian participating political parties would adhere to the letter hnd spirit of the independence plan. Needless to say, these observers played their role and I feel honoured to announce to the world that the CIMS Observers SAW IT ALL! The CIMS Observer report is not a book or a research expose' of some sort. Rather it is a collection of raw material edited from observers' field reports and daily observations throughout the transitional period. - 1 - CIMS OBSERVERS' REPORTS Table of Contents Introduction General Observations REPORTS FROM:- Kavango and Caprivi Strip - Ovamboland - Kaokoland - Bushmanland - Damaraland - Otjiwarango, Omaruru and Outjo - Gobabis - Central region - Swakopmund and Walvis Bay - Tsumeb - Windhoek REPORTS ON SPECIAL ISSUES List of Monitors Glossary of abbreviations etc 2- 3 4- 8 9 - 62 63 - 124 125 - 163 164 - 183 184 - 196 197 - 210 211 - 220 221 - 231 232 - 288 289 - 356 357 - 378 379 - 430 431 - 433 434 - 435 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I would like to Sinram, Mr Henk fellow monitors reports, helped various sections also go to the his staff. express my profound gratitude to Mr Hermann van Apeldoorn and Miss Irene Aartisma, who, in addition to submitting their own me greatly in sorting out and compiling of this volume of reports. Special thanks Director of CIMS, Mr Vezera B Kandetu, and DENIS B M'PASSOU ED .TOR May I take this project possible. this country for skill and audacity. The many palmed a understand 2 opportunity to thank all who made this The leadership of the Church movement in the dynamic leadership they provided with international observers and guests who came and daring responsibility which they did not very well and which at times proved dangerous. The invisible local monitors and observers who served as the ground crew for and who formed the backbone to the whole operation, often risking their own lives. And to crown it all, let me thank the Namibian people at large, who made it all possible. Without their dedication to the struggle for justice and their determination to make the transition work, the UNSCR 435 implementation would have been derailed long before the arrival of the first Namibian exiles. As the Namibian people celebrate their hard won freedom they do so with full confidence that the day shall come when all God's children will be at liberty to breathe the sweet air of freedom and when that day shall come, no person, no matter how many armoured tanks they command, will be able to reverse the course of events. BY; VIZ A KANDETU ASSOCIATE GENERAL SECRETARY OF CCN DIRECTOR OF CIMS FEBRUARY 1990 = 4 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS This report covers dominant trends that I observed between 1-18 July 1989. 1. THE POLITICAL CLIMATE Since the unfortunate events of April 1, the mood in Namibia has changed considerably and become increasingly positive and hopeful. This improvement has come about principally through the work of UNTAG and the desire of many not to let the opportunity for independence be stolen from the people. Nevertheless, Mr Martti Ahtisaari (SR) has declared (July 6) that conditions do not yet exist which would permit the holding of "free and fair" elections. 2. REGISTRATION Registration began on July 3. By Friday, July 14 over a third of the estimated 650,000 people eligible to vote had registered. Both Isel Rivero y Mendez of the Okahandja UNTAG Office and Yolanda Auger of the Swakopmund UNTAG Office reported that registration was proceeding at a steady pace. Ms Rivero y Mendez is sending the mobile registration unit around part of the district a second time as she is not satisfied that all eligible voters have had a chance to register. In Swakopmund Ms Anger said businesses in Walvis Bay were cooperating by sussing eligible employees to Swakopmund to register. The line up at the registration office on Saturday morning (July 15) in Swakopmund numbered several hundred people. It would be helpful if more registration clerks could be hired for Saturdays when many people have time off from work to register. = 5 = Several registration irregularities have been reported in THE NAMIBIAN. Chief complaints are that registration forms have been incorrectly completed, the shortage of interpreters and misspelling of names. This raises the question of the validity of these registration forms at the times of election. There are also reports that UNTAG Officers are not monitoring the registration process with sufficient care. Further work needs to be undertaken by the Ecumenical Observer Group to ascertain the extent to which free and fair elections may be compromised. 3. PROBLEMS Out of the 1800 strong SWAPOL force in the north, 1500 are ex-koevoet members. Not surprisingly, koevoet members are reputed to be killers. The mere sight of koevoet in Casspirs is psychologically disturbing to the population. There have been widespread reports of koevoet harassment at night. Here are some examples of koevoet brutality and harassment in the north. (1) On Saturday, July 1, Loise Mutilitha and Gideon Netope were gunned down by ex-koevoet member, Muhambo Muneputu, see THE NAMIBIAN, Wednesday, July 5. (2) Mr John Rambuga, the UNTAG Regional Director in Oshakati told us of a man who found himself in an argument with another man because he was singing SWAPO songs. The man who objected to the songs left and returned with reinforcements. The SWAPO supporter was taken and tortured. His tongue was pulled out and he was locked up in prison. UNTAG will be using this case to demonstrate the unlawful action of the koevoet component in SWAPOL. (3) The O'Linn Commission is at present (July 10/11) investigating a complaint where DTA supporters opened fire = 6 = on a bus holding SWAPO supporters at Onankali in June, while SWAPOL stood by. When SWAPOL eventually acted they arrested 13 of the SWAPO supporters and let the DTA supporters go free. (4) On July 10, I spoke with Ms Rebecca Ntinda, a teacher at Ambili Senior School who told me that koevoet prevented her from getting water on Oshakati because she supported SWAPO rather than DTA. General Dreyer, Head of SWAPOL in the north, assured us that koevoet were quite capable of doing ordinary police work. The numerous reports of harassment and cases of brutality make one question his confidence. It should be noted that there has been an improvement in the performance of SWAPOL over the past few weeks. The rate of reported incidents has declined from 6 to 8 a day to 5 to 6 per week. Night patrols have supposedly ended. The mounted machine guns on the casspirs have been removed and the use of these vehicles is gradually being reduced. One of the problems that UNTAG has at present is the lack of vehicles that are able to accompany the SWAPOL casspirs on patrol. SWAPOL gave UNTAG some casspirs but they have all proved to be unroadworthy. UNTAG is waiting to receive some casspirs which will be painted white. The last confirmed land mine explosion occurred eight months ago so it would seem that casspirs are really unnecessary for ordinary police work. SWAPOL, however, continue to use them. this week (July 11) it was reported that UNTAG is now using a helicopter to beef up the UN Police Monitoring work. The UNTAG Police Force stands at 190 at present (July 5). There will be an increase of 310 UNTAG police shortly. The Regional Director of UNTAG at Oshakati said that 500 UNTAG Police are still not enough for the northern region. He is quite clear that the presence of UNTAG has raised the standard of SWAPOL performance in the north. = 7 RECOMMENDATION Every political party that we met supported the removal of koevoet from the north in order to terminate the actual and psychological intimidation of the people. Our group were unanimous on this point as well, While the military component of UNTAG is under employed the police component needs to be increased. Mr Ahtisaari would be pleased of support in this matter. (b) FARM WORKERS There are approximately 5000 white farmers in Namibia. many of the farms are isolated and the farm workers who make up 20% of the population are highly dependent on their employers for access to life beyond the farm boundaries.