30 November 1989

* * * THE NEWSPAPER FOR A NEW NAMIBIA * * * Bringing Africa South Thusday November 30 UIRY Smuggled letter reveals night beatings of Grootfontein detainees ------ BY RAJAH MUNAMAVA ----- AN UNSPECIFIED number of policemen of Grootfontein may face charges arising from assaults on prisoners awaiting trial, held at the police cells in the town. The police district detective offi tory actions started just after the an cer, Inspectot Marais ofTsurneb, has nouncement of the election results already opened a docket and an in more than two weeks ago. vestigation is continuing. Prior to this and during th e elec Last week, prisoners in Grootfon tion period, the situation had been tein smuggled out a letter from the better as Untag personnel slept on the police cells in which they outlined prison grounds to guard ballot boxes their ordeal at the hands of their which were kept there, they said. police keepers. In their letter, the detainees asked The detainees alleged that police Swapo to seek a remedy to their officers came in at night and took plight, and even suggested that people them out for beating sessions . be sent to the Grootfontein cells at From the letter it would appear night to keep check on the situation that the beatings, if true, have noth there as anything could happen to ing to do with interrogations on the them, adding that they felt their lives specific cases for which the detainees were in danger. are being held. The commander of the Grootfon The detainees said in the letter that tein police, Inspector Du Plessis, they were being told that Untag, which suggested that this reporter speak to had been helping them, had gone and the investigating officer when ap that they would now have to bear the proached for comment, but added SW APO leader Reverend Hendrik consequences. that he was aware of the investiga Witbooi, members of his family They further state that they were tion. and German ambassador Dr being told they would be killed be Also confirming the investigation Germans Sulimma at the presentation of a cause they belonged to Swapo. The was Warrant Officer Leon Rust from prayerbook which belonged to killing would supposedly be carried police headquarters in Windhoek, who out almost immediately as "time for said that the matter was being treat~ Reverend Witbooi's famous .~ the boers is mnning out". return piece of ancestor. The detainees said these intimida- CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 Namibian history ------ BY SARA BLECHER ----- INSURANCE WHEN the West German occupation of Namibia ended in 1917, many of the Germans returned to GermahY, taking with them documents and records of Namibian history. Yesterday, one of these relics was finally returned to its rightful owner at a DISPUTE SETTLED ceremony in the German observer mission. ·In 1893, at the battle of Hornkranz - the first armed conlict between West Germany and Namas on African soil - a hymn book belonging to the schoolmas ter Witbooi got into the hands of Fritz Heller, a German s(lldier, who took the book back to Germany. Brokers accuse GSSA of favouring Yesterday, after a request from Mr Heller's descendant, Friedrich Hohne, that the book be returned to Africa, this Dutch Bible was finally presented to Reverend Hendrik Witbooi. Welwitschia Insurance Brokers Handing ov er the prayerbook, German ambassador, Dr Sulimma, told the Reverend that he personally, and the whole people of Namibia, had fought a long ~ battle to reach the goals of independence and freedom and had thus carried on the THE prlvatisation of civil servants' pension benefits into retirement annuities brought about friction traditions of their ancestors, wh ose book he was now presenting to Mr Witbooi. among different insurance agents, with most agents accusing the Government Service Staff Association "Self-determination is the expression of the very identity of a people and (GSSA) of favouring Welwitschia Insurance Brokers over them. hi story is part of this identity, " he said. The in-fighting among insurance by the assoeiation to Welwitschia their agents, an urgent meeting was Upon receiving the prayerbook, Reverend Witbooi, a decendant of the great agents had, however, been resolved Insurance Brokers. This was seen by called betwecn the representatives of Nama Chief Hendrik Witbooi and also vice-president of Swapo and a memberof afterrepresentatives of the insurance insurance agents as prejudice against the insurance industry and GSSA to the Constituent Assembly, said, "Receiving back something that belonged to us industry met with the GSSA to dis those brokers who did not belong to clear the matter in the interest of all and belonged to our forefathers is a very sad and joyous event. " cuss the issue. Welwitschia. When approached for concerned. Speaking in Nama, the language of his fore fathers, he said he hoped that the q An advertisement placed by the comment, Mr Conrad Buessing of The parties agreed in a joint state handing back of the hymn book was a symbolic gesture that meant that all the ment issued after the meeting that other documents and records of Namibian history would also be returned to their GSSA in all Windhoek's newspapers GSSA did not deny that people were rightful owners. last week was viewed by many agents being referred to Welwitschia. insurance brokers would at all times Reverend Witbooi also said that Namibia was now entering a new phase of as an attack on their integrity as "Wclwitschia Insurance Brokers cxplain to the civil servant and independence which in the past had been overshadowed by colonialism, but that salespersons. arc our official brokers and it is only "compare benefits of the official he hoped that it could also be a new phase of forgi ving and forgetting. The advertisement labelled them obvious that we will refer our mcm pension fund to all other options". " I admire the courage of those who have handed over this book and I'd like as people who were just "chasing bers wanting advice on their pcnsion GSSA, in the statement, e)(pressed to thank them ", he said, "but at the same ti me I'd al so like to appeal to the South fortunes" in commission. It was also benefits to our brokers," Mr Bu its full confidence in the ability of the Afri cans, who are th e last co lonia li sts to leave, not to take our bel ongin gs with alleged in the advertisement that civil essing asserted. insurance industry to . 'regulate and them when they go. The y, too, must hand over the documents and record s of our servants were being " pressuri sed" "We have confident:e :n them and control" the marketing of retirement people. " by "ov' -cager" insUrance salesper arc 100 per cen t S In; that they would annuities. I\ lso attend ing th ,; presentatio n at the German observer mi ss ion, were mem sons to transfer their pension bene advise our mem t"> e[s to the best of "TIle insur;mce indll'try ;md (lSSA bers of Mr Wit booi 's fa mily wl, o. in kee pin g with the spirit of the bibl e, sang a fits into private annuities. their interests. They aTe people of have th e fullest confid ence in the prayer that had bee n writt en by Reverend Witbooi him self. Meanwhile, it was discovcred that integrity," he added. future of Namit.i a. and look f()[w anl "Let us uni te our country for th e sake of our heri tage, " they sung. " On th e those civil scrvan ts who approac hed But afl\:r complaints wcre received to a prod uctive workill!! n: laLi ollship." ~ur face it looks like it is poor hut undern eath it IS ric h." GSSA for advice wer-: bci ng referred from most insurance companies and the statl"l llcnt concluded. 2 Thursday r~ovember 30 1985 .'THE NA<MIBIAN Paris conference· Between . _.. -- - '- ANC and white liberals most discre·et ev.er no YOUR DAlLY GUIDE TO EVENTS WORLD-WIDE THIS week's Paris "Indaba" on a post-apartheid Sou.th Africa between the exiled African National Congress and mainly white liberal political and economic figures froin within the country is being conducted far more discretely with an eye tothe future than its controversial 1987 forerunn!J in Dakar, Senegal. ·, Although on a numerically larger participants. ture constitution based on group rights PRAGUE - A senior Communist official promised free elections, possi scale, and with the added impetus of South African diplomats, keeping a was unacceptable. bly within 12 months, as the Czechoslovak parliament prepared to participation by leading Afrikaner distanced but as sharp as possible an The ANC's demands, outlined in a abolish the party's 40-year-old monopoly of power, Broederbond and business leaders eye on developments, confirmed this pre-negotiation condition document looking to their interests in a post could be seen asin line with Mr Botha's drafted a few months ago and subse BRUSSELS - Nato defence ministers said the Warsaw Pact remained a apartheid South Africa, the ingredients successor, Mr F.W. de Klerk's reform quently endorsed by the frontline states military threat despite some defence cuts, and pledged to keep up the are essentially similar. commitments and "open door" policy and the Organisation of A frican Unity, alliance's guard as reforms sweep Eastern Europe. ' Once again it is France's presidential to negotiations with anti-apartheid still stood. First Woman and outspoken human leaders on a " new" South Africa. These included un banning the AND NEW DELHI- Prime minister Rajlv Gandhi resigned, clearing the way and the other banned organisations, the rights campaigner, Danielle Mitte~ The South African government's for an opposition government in India for only the second time since in rand, and Idasa (Institute for a Demo stipulation that these issues be negoti release of all political prisoners and dependence.

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