LAWYERS' COMMITTEE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS UNDER LAW

SUITE 400 • 1400 EYE STREET, NORTHWEST • WASHINGTON, D.C. 20005 • PHONE (202) 371-1212

CABLE ADDRESS: LAWCIV, WASHINGTON, D.C. TELEX: 205662 SAP UR FACSIMILE: (202) 842·3211

THIS WEEK IN Week of September 17-24, 1989

(A w kly report filed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil R~ghts So th rn frica Project staff in Namibia) 1. With November 6 no less than six ek 11 of the unr solved variables affecting the holding of fre nd f ir 1 ctions in N mibia r leading t9 an tmo ph re of nxious xcitement, best captured in the contradictory fe, lings aroused by SWAPO deputy election director Anton Lubowski's assassination and SWAPO President 's return. Time is running out to resolve security problems, pursue vot r due tion, disseminate election information, and train el ctor 1 per onnel. Th se v rious issues, among others, must no be addr ssed simul~ neously and in short order. The eontinu d fin 1 election law exacerbates t e mounting s sp ith little time left to campaign, no polit'c_l p rty i quipped ith basic information bout proc duras gOY rni g th lections. In ddition, neither the law nor the determination regarding which parties are legally regi tered r 1ik ly to be available until round September 28. Pr ctically pe king, this means that idespread voter education of a 1 rgely illiter t population almost entirely unfamiliar with popular elections will not start until mid-October, or just three eeks before voting begins. Representatives of the worldwid . 'Anglic n church visiting Namibia this week, who were joined for day by· rchbishop Desmond Tutu, urged on September 18 that the proclam tion be made public "so that people could become f miliar and comfortable with it." A draft version of the .reworked election laws, which has been made available to the L wy rs' Committee, se rns to indicate that many of the major f1 ws in the draft lection laws have been eliminated, although problems still remain Despite persistent legislative, security, humanitarian and political problems, however, this week had some memorable moments in Namibia's history. On Thursday, Sam Nujoma met with the Administrator General, Louis Pienaar. The Special Representative held unprecedented joint meetings in the north ·with all the major political parties, affirming a mutual code of conduct. The South west African Broadcasting Corporation initiated an "election f,orum," allotting long-demanded air time to the maj or parties for publicizing their various platforms. The repatriation of 41,657 Namibian exiles concluded and th,e registration of over 695,902 voters cam to a close. 2. The "confinement to base" of Koevoet, the former counter-insurgency unit which was incorporated into the police force late last year, continues to prove problematic. Sources in the North report that the confinement apparently pertains only between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.a.nd that Casspirs, allegedly reduced and consigned to border patrol in the north, are still regularly cited in non-border areas. UNTAG reporte,dly is pursuing a phased approach to the problem, arguing first for full-time confinement of Koevoet in bases outside the north to be followed by complete disbandment, as m,anda -ed un,d r 435. Little about the current status of the negotiations is publicly known. In a separate but related development, eventeen former PLAN combatants walked away from a flKoevoet farm" near Ts~meb, where they had been working since their capture by the army in separate combat actions. The eventeen left ·the 'farm following September 8 reports in The .Nam1bian revealing their presence there.

Addition.· 1 workers remained behind 0 General Hans Dreyer, former commander of Koevoet who now commands the South West African poli,ce in northern Namibia, was pres,ent at the government-owned farm wh n arrived, and he contended that the ex-PLAN fighters were there "voluntarilyo" One farm worker said however th t he was nev r officially told of his releas:e and "feared to l'eave the farm without approval 0 " The work rs reportedly also red going hom because of possible negative r actions there. Following the publicity, they decided to leave the farm on ,onay, september 18. Their resettlement will be handled by the churches' Repatriation, Resettlement and Reconstruction committee. SWAPO's regional office in was attacked twice this week by unidentified gunmen. At .1:30 a.m. Thursday, the office was fired on and hit s~ven times. A similar incident occurred last Sunday. In a September 21 press conference, SWAPO election director Hage Geingob also reported continued harassment of SWAPO supporters in Windhoek's so-called black township, including a planned DTA march this past Wednesday to the home of SWAPO President Sam Nujoma. At the same press conference, Geingob reiterated the now familiar SWAPO theme of reconciliation, stressing that SWAPO returned to Namibia "ready for the democratic process." He said

2 the r cent incidents of Katutura, however, coupled with the ass'ssination ofSWAPO deputy-election director Anton Lubowski, were provoking SWAPO supporters and that he did not know how much longer the leadership would be able to restrain its followers. He further disclosed that SWAPO security guards are now licensed to bear rms and are doing so. He stressed that "they know how to shoot.•• [but] re being told not to shoot."

Little further n~ws has been reported regarding the investig. tion into Anton Lubowski's murder. An article in the S pt mber 22 issue of The Weekly Mail notes that prospects of the sole suspect in custody actually being charged with the crime " ppe r to be receding." One police source is reported to have stated th t "he'·s our man, but he is not cooperating." Speculation on all sides continues regarding responsibility for the assassination. Three men have been arrested in connection with the August 10 tt ck on UNTAG barracks in outjo, which left one Namibian security guard dead and the offices damaged by m-achine gun fire and grenade blasts. The suspects appeared in the magisterial court in otji rongo on September 10 an~ are expected to appe r gain on ptemb r 29. All three men 'reside in and one is citizen of West Germany. 3. _ As noted above, the final electoral laws re only expected at the end of this week, or possibly, the beginning of next week. Since the arrival of s-enior UN legal advisor Paul Szasz, the negotiations have taken a new turn, 'and, ccording to the office of the AG's Chief Ele6tion Officer, "mjor concessions" have been made and substantial changes agreed upon. Details of the negoti tions are difficult to verify, but 11 rports p-oint t·o the likely ab-andonrnent of the lengthy v rifica ·on procedure nd th widely criticized centralized coun-ting proc . In ddition, the provision for marking voters' r 9i tr -tion numb rs on th ir b llot envelopes has reportedly been d opped. If these changes among others ar mad.e, it is estim ted that the nnouncement of the results could occur within four days of the close of balloting. All of these provisions, ho v r, are still under discussion and as such remain subject to ch nge. A more detailed analysis of the law will be published by the Lawyers' Committee following promulgation of the official procl-amation. . In a related development, A.G. Visser, whose appointment as Chief Registration Officer was contested by internal groups for his alleged involvement in the former interim government's National Security Council, was appointed Chief Election Officer last week. The controversy over Visser's first appointment . erupted following reports in Tbe Namibian that the NSC, on which he served, had discussed a strategy to defeat SWAPO in the coming elections. Visser was not present at the NSC meeting where this

3 ut s a committ

. The Par nts' Committe, a politic lly conserv tiv group which claims to represent SWAPO det in as, iled n urgent application on September 19· in the ndhoek Suprem Cour against SWAPO President Sam NUjoma and six other r spondents. The PC has sked that the court issue an ord r r quiring the respondents a) to provid·e a Ii t of names of p r on tak,en 8 nto d t'ention by SWAPO from 1980 to dat , co.mplete ith info~ation pert inin9 to their relea e; b) to deliver all regi tar .of d tine k pt by SWAPO t v rious camps and a n of oth r docum nts; c) to relea e numb r of lleged e ine m d 8 n the pplic tion nd d) to p y the co t of the roc ing. i~t e' etion is 9 nerally p rc ived by . '''publicity mov design d to coincid i th the ion to ng01 nd Z mbi , which the publicly di'smi ad a "white-washing the crimes of the led rship. tt (The mission, returned this w~ k, but thei,r fin ings ill not be public until lat this coming we k. Unconfirm d report i dicate they found very little if nything.) Fe 1 9 1 n ly t f 1 that the Par nt ' Committee nd four oth r pplic nts h v dqu t st nding to bring th c to court or noug inform tion to su t in it. In ddition, it is . unc r th r· th Supreme court h th jurisdiction to give 1i o:g t, c1. lly ith r g rd to etion yond .~~'l.~~i t bord r • ering ffid vit must be fi1 d by October 6. For th P st two weeks The Times QfNamibia, a Namibian d ily r c tly purch sed by the DTA, has printed detailed reports on th qu stion of SWAPO det ine s by Sigfried Groth, a West ·G rm n p tor from th v r inigt' Ev ngelische Mission. Groth· h s worked ith SAPO r fuge s in exile sine 1987 on" behalf of t 0 Luther n churches in Namibi and has a long history of work i N mibia nd ith N mibian. Groth reports that since 1985 he w r of d t ntion by SWAPO and of viol tions of human r by th orgniz tion. H contends th t Namibia' church 1 r ' 1 0, r of 'th . dey lopments. He cites pecific c numb r of d t in s with hom h is "personally cq lnt d nd 0 th mistre tment they uffered while in d tention. He 1 0 lIeges th t dditional detainees exist. No offici 1 response to th se llegations from the churches or SWAPO

~ a' b sued, though the Evangelical Luther n Church (ELC) issued a statement on September 14 which "strongly condemns tortur nd other forms of ill treatment of Namibians by fellow amib· ns in the liberation struggle, whether they were guilty or not. " 5. A 17 day old boycott against South est Br.eweries and its holding company Ol.thaver and List Group continues as the company failed to reach agreement with 197 orkers fired after a prote~t strike over the dismissal of on of their colleagues. At the time of the strike, three workers w re arrested and nine injur~d when police forcibly disbursed workers waiting for pay following their dismiss 1, report dly invoking the controversial publiq meetings . procl at·on, AG 23. Two addition 1 SWB workers were detained e rl.i r thi,s week under this same proclamation. (On September 2 , -n his f1rst public address in Namibia in over thirty years, befor n e timat. d crowd of 50,000, SWAPO President Sam Nujoma c lled for the immediate repeal of AG 23.) The Namibia Food. and Ilied Workers Union (NAFAU) has called for th uncondition 1 r in ta e nt of all dismissed workers which the company has thus f r r. f· d.

The Octob r 1 date for tran Of government employee pension fund into the hands of priv ~outh African insurance comp nies fast· pproaches. Both the ' ibian Transport Workers Union and the Public Workers Union have strongly protested the action. Both u~ions, among others, hav called for accurate figures on the size of the pension, which h ve not yet been released. Early estimates ranged as high as 1.3 billion, the privitization of hich, if it results in the funds' movement out of the country, could substantially affect mibia's lready fragile economic b s ..

For more information contact: Gay McDougall Lorr in Eide (202) 371-·1212

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