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PRESS
RELEASE NR.01/UNITA/ MEMORANDUM ON NON-COMPLIANCE BY THE MPLA 1975-1998 CARTA ABERTA AOS POVOS DE EXPRESSÃO PORTUGUESA
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November 20, 2000 PRESS RELEASE ANTI-OVIMBUNDU PROTESTS IN RUNDU The Namibian town of Rundu, some 700km north of the capital Windhoek, was yesterday and today abuzz with calls by SWAPO supporters for the summary deportation of detained José Domingos SIKUNDA (63) and "all Ovimbundu-speaking people" to Angola. In Angola, the Ovimbundu people constitute the bulk of political support for the UNITA movement led by Jonas Savimbi. Ovimbundu-speaking people have lived peacefully in Namibia for decades and share traditional cultures with certain Namibian ethnic groups. This morning, slogan-shouting and placard-carrying SWAPO sympathizers marched to the Rundu Magistrate's Court where they handed over a petition to both the local Magistrate and the Governor of the Kavango Region. According to regional human rights monitors and local residents, SWAPO supporters, numbering about 100, demanded that Sikunda and recently released detainees be declared persona non-grata and summarily deported to Angola. The names of former detainees, like Bartholomeu Sangeve, Herculano Jornal Satchanga and Paulo Mendes as well as other Ovimbundu-speaking residents like Manuel Shingi, Samuel Batista and Magdalena Martino were also mentioned. "We will take the law in [to] our own hands if Sikunda is released," read one placard and "Sanctions Against Unita, Sanctions Against Sikunda", read another poster. Sikunda continues to be held in police custody in spite of the October 24, 2000, High Court order for his immediate release. NSHR once again would like to point out to the ruling SWAPO party and its followers that nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands. Threats of lawlessness are unconstitutional and undemocratic and therefore must be stopped. The fact that the demonstrators started from SWAPO's local office, and after an hour or so returned to that office, clearly shows that the SWAPO leadership instigated this anti-Ovimbundu bias. NSHR has on several occasions expressed concern about the safety of the Ovimbundu ethnic minority group in Namibia. For additional comment, please call P. ya Nangoloh or Zen Mnakapa at tel: +264 61 236 183 (office hours) or Mobiles +264 811 299 886 or +264 812 452 812 From: Phil ya Nangoloh To: All Concerned Amnesty International Members Date: Sun, 19 Nov 2000 08:07:23 +0200 Dear Amnesty International (AI) Members We acknowledge with deep appreciation your letter regarding the detention of the four Namibian residents, Paulo Mendes, Herculano Jornal Satchanga, Bartolomeu Sangueve and Jose Domingos Sikunda. We are very pleased and wish to thank all concerned fellow human rights defenders for exerting enormous pressure on the Government of Namibia to release the four detainees. As a result, three of the detainees, except Jose Domingos Sikunda (63), were released on October 27, 2000. They were, indeed, detained arbitrary and unlawfully, contrary to the provisions of both national and international human rights laws. As to the apparent reason for their detention, the Government claims that they are members of UNITA, the Angolan armed opposition movement led by Dr. Jonas Savimbi. The Government claims that it detains these people in order to comply with its "international obligation as stipulated in resolution 1127(1997) of the United Nations Security Council". This resolution requires UN Members to deny visas, residence permits and similar privileges "senior UNITA officials and the adult members of their immediate families". However, the UN has for this purpose compiled a list of 80 alleged senior UNITA officials and the adult members of their immediate families. Nevertheless, the official list so compiled in accordance with paragraph 11(a) of the resolution 1127(1997) does not include any of the four detainees. Nor does it include dozens other detainees who are being held secretly detained, tortured, deported to Angola or caused to disappear without trace in Namibia, including Aurelio Samakupa. Please visit our website for a Sworn Statement by Mrs. Samakupa. After all, those affected by this resolution are Angolan citizens who, for the purpose of representing UNITA, are present in foreign countries, not any citizens or lawful permanent residents of Angolan origin of a any country, who may have sympathy for UNITA's struggle due to ethnic or tribal affiliation. Hence, the real reason for detaining the four men and, indeed, Samakupa and many others is the fact that virtually all the victims are members of the same ethnic group---the Ovimbundu ethnic group---as Jonas Savimbi, which in Angola, is the largest and which constitutes the largest natural constituency for UNITA. Politics in Africa is often along natural constituencies: tribal, ethnic, religious affiliation, etc, and Angola is no exception. Over 3 000 Namibian soldiers are currently deployed alongside Angolan government forces in Namibia and Angola where they fighting against UNITA troops. The Namibian government, however, denies this. We are attaching hereto a sworn statement by Mrs. Samakupa, who is looking for her husband and will appreciate it if you and other rights defenders pressurize the Government to reveal his whereabouts. The Namibian Government must not be allowed to continue to flout the law with impunity! Very sincerely P. ya Nangoloh, Sr Executive Director National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) 57 Bahnhofstrasse P. O. Box 23592 Windhoek - Namibia Tel: +264 61 236 183/+264 61 253 447 Mobiles: +264 61 811 299 886 (Phil) or +264 812 452 812 (Zen) Fax: +264 61 234 286 E-mail:nshr@iafrica.com.na or nshr@namweb.com.na Web: http://nshr.namweb.com.na ----- One of the Original AI Messages ----- "Dear Mr. Nangolah: Hello, I'm writing to you in concern for Jose Domingos Sekunda, Paulo Mendes, Herculano Jornal Satchanga and Bartolomeu Sangueve who are being held without charge and seeking assurances that they will not be forced to return to Angola. For what reasons were they arrested? We (Amnesty International) are asking for their immediate release unless they are promptly charge with a real crime and asking for them to be given access to their families and lawyers and any necessary medical attention that they might need. I hope that you do the right thing. Thank you for reading my letter. Sincerely, Amnesty International Member" NATIONAL SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS MORE ATTROCITIES AGAINST
CIVILIAN POPULATION EXPOSED: Human rights monitors in the Kavango Region reported that Immanuel MUKUVE (34) yesterday revealed to them that members of the paramilitary Special Field Force (SFF) arrested him and five other Namibian male civilians in May 2000. They were held for three months without trial, let alone being brought before a magistrate within 48 hours as prescribed in Article 11 of the Namibian Constitution. The incident took place at Rupara village, some 90 km west of Rundu. The names of the other five are given by Mukuve as Johannes SIMBILINGWA, Sikongo KANDJIMI, Petu MUGOMBA, a certain Sikongo and Sikongo SIWOGEDI. Their ages are not immediately known. The six, all said to be members of the Kwangali tribe, were allegedly accused of being "UNITA bandits" and of possessing illegal firearms. "UNITA collaborators", "UNITA sympathizers" or "UNITA bandits" are common euphemisms interchangeably used by Government for, especially, members of the Ovimbundu-speaking ethnic group. Their Oshiwambo-speaking SFF captors allegedly destroyed their Namibian identity documents and voting cards in order to destroy proof of their citizenship. On the day of their arrest they spent a night in one police cell at the Kahenge Police precinct, some 110km west of Rundu. The following morning, the detainees were taken to the banks of the Kavango River for interrogation, a process that continued up to the middle of July 2000. According to Mukuve, they were told to "tell the truth about the guns, or else you will be tortured for months". On a certain day in mid-July 2000, around 08h00, they were handed over to the Namibian Defense Force (NDF) at Rupara and 30 NDF soldiers took them in three watos across the said river into Angola. They were eventually brought to an abandoned hut with a thatched grass roof, which was then set on fire. "They started pushing us one by one into the burning hut. As the flames came closer we were pulled out, also one by one", Mukuve alleged. They were then subjected to further physical torture with batons that "have electricity inside" as part of interrogations. They were again taken back to the Kahenge Police station at about 15H00. Still in July, the six were again handed over to the NDF at the Rundu Military Base, where they spent two days before they were released. Then they went back to Rupara, where they spent only three days before SFF members again picked them up. SFF again subjected them to torture "so seriously for the whole day that our bodies were swollen all over. I could not eat and Simbilingwa suffered a broken back" as a result of beatings. According to Mukuve, while they were in custody at Kahenge someone apparently informed a certain Rheinhold Muremi, said to be SWAPO Regional Councilor for the Kahenge Constituency. Muremi allegedly took Mukuve, Simbilingwa and Kandjimi to the Kahenge clinic. A medical report dated July 23, 2000, which Mukuve produced to proof his allegations, inter alia, reads as following: "back pain for beating of police, then urine mixed with blood, Dg, trauma, Rx Panado, methyl salf, bactrium 2 BD". Mukuve also alleged that they wanted to lay charges against their torturers, but this Muremi told them to wait until he comes back to them, "but he never came". Mukuve also stated that he, Kandjimi and Simbilingwa were finally released. Petu Mungomba, Sikongo Siwogedi and Sikongo were left in SFF custody at Rupara and their present whereabouts are unknown. The Namibian newspaper recently carried a report that Paulus SHIKEVA (42), who was also accused of being a "UNITA bandit", died on September 25, 2000, under mysterious circumstances. Whereas NSHR on October 3, 2000, expressed "grave alarm" over the practice of secret detentions in Namibia. NSHR is once again forced to conclude with dismay that the Namibian security forces in the Kavango and Caprivi regions are behaving like a force of occupation. This state of affairs is reminiscent of the widespread atrocities meted out to, especially, the Oshiwambo-speaking people by apartheid South African forces prior to Namibian independence. Is the shoe now on the other foot? For additional comment, please contact P. ya Nangoloh or Zen Mnakapa at June 6, 2000 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MERCENARIES AND CHILD SOLDIERS: ADMISSION AT LAST NSHR congratulates the Government for having reportedly distanced itself from Namibian mercenaries and child soldiers recruited on Namibian soil by the Angolan armed forces (FAA) since their arrival here last November. President Sam Nujoma must also be commended for his admission, albeit tacit, that there are in fact Namibian mercenaries. According to media reports President Nujoma, addressing a public rally in Rundu over the weekend, strongly condemned Namibian citizens who had joined Angolan armed forces. Nonetheless, the fact that such recruitment has taken place on Namibian soil does not exonerate the authorities in terms of national and international law. Government in the beginning of this year accused NSHR and the print media of, among other things, "vitriolic propaganda" on behalf of Angola's UNITA movement saying they were "behav[ing] as if they belong to a fifth column". In particular, Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Tuliameni Kalomoh dismissed widespread media reports of Namibians being used as mercenaries and child soldiers claiming that these 'remain premeditated lies spread by NSHR and published by the print media'. "As a gesture of honesty and for the sake of the truth we are now calling upon the Government to formally retract and correct their recent statements as well as apologize for deliberately misleading both national and international public opinion. Some of us were even threatened with death and charges of high treason over these very same reports", said NSHR Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh Sr, earlier today. NSHR and certain sections of local and international media on various occasions reported that the FAA were openly recruiting Namibians in and around Rundu but the Government denied that their invited FAA guests would entice poor young Namibians with promises of US dollars. After such denial that Angolan armed forces were recruiting any Namibians, the Ministry of Defense is now explaining that the Namibian Defense Force will now blacklist these very mercenaries. Will such mercenaries now be charged under section 43 (1)(b) of the Namibian Defense Amendment Act (Act No. 20 of 1990) which unambiguously stipulates that: "No citizen may render service or bind himself or herself to serve as a mercenary"? Will the Government now also admit that they could have stopped these criminal recruitment activities if they had only acknowledged them earlier? Furthermore, NSHR continues to be adamant that Angolan armed forces and their collaborators are responsible for most of the rob-and-kill-or-plant-landmine terror campaign in Western Caprivi and Kavango. Government claims that 'suspected UNITA bandits are 100 percent responsible' for atrocious acts is nothing more than a diversionary tactic to cover-up the truth. Maybe the simplistic notion that so-called UNITA bandits commit all the atrocities will now be replaced with a more realistic account of events. As Ambrosius Haingura, SWAPO Councillor for the Rundu Urban Constituency basically admitted recently in the National Council, the so-called UNITA bandits are under FAA command. On April 19, 2000, in a local NBC radio news report, also stated that UNITA rebels should not blamed for "all the criminal activities in the Kavango Region". As a responsible and impartial human rights advocacy and monitoring organisation, NSHR does not deny that UNITA forces commit human rights abuses--they do. Experience has repeatedly shown that virtually all armed liberation forces had their fair share of committing human rights atrocities, e.g., SWAPO, MPLA and ANC, to mention but a few. Why should UNITA be an exception? We have on several occasions held UNITA responsible for certain acts of terror perpetrated in the areas under their jurisdiction. But the fact that the invited FAA troops engage in deliberate and systematic acts of abduction, rape, robbery, summary executions and planting of anti-personnel mines should not be swept under the carpet. In light of the above admissions, NSHR calls upon the Government to immediately withdraw Angolan forces from Namibian soil. For additional comment, please contact: P. ya Nangoloh and Zen Mnakapa at tel: +264 61 236 183 or +264 811 299 886 ONGOING PERSECUTION OF MEDIA WORKERS IN ANGOLA |
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Última actualização/Last update 26-11-2000 |
