Repressive measures in northern Namibia have been intensified in the past 2-3 months, especially since attacks on white civilians, attributed to black guerillas, occurred shortly before Christmas. In addition to the detainees listed in Focus No.1 p.11, the following are known to have been arrested:
EVA MWANDINGI, HENDERINA SHAKETANGE, OLIVIA MBANGULA, ESTER SHANGANO, HILENI ELIJAS, KAINO MALWA — all nurses, arrested in Engela on Monday 20 October. ANNA HASHEELA, also a nurse, was detained but subsequently released following church pressure. She has a 9-month old baby.
VICTOR NKANDI, YUSUF SAGARIAS
REV. STEPHEN SHIMBODI, an Anglican priest whose parish adjoins the Angolan border, was reported to have been arrested in December under the emergency Proclamation R17.
MARIA MUESHIHANGE, the sister of a SWAPO official, was also reported detained at this time.
OTHNIEL KAAKUNGA, SWAPO Secretary of the Interior, who was released on 3 October, was arrested again on 22 October, at 5 o'clock in the morning. He was taken from his home in Windhoek by the police to the Pass Office and locked up for three hours on the grounds that his pass was not in order. He was eventually released with a warning. The cat-and-mouse act was repeated the following day, when both Mr. Kaakunga and Elifas Munjaro, SWAPO Secretary of Foreign Affairs were locked up for a time under the pass laws. In a letter to the Windhoek Advertiser, Kaakunga said that this act of "harassment to the last degree will not deter me from fighting for one Namibia and one nation".
Other detainees are known to have been moved around from prison to prison inside Namibia. Relatives, friends and attorneys have been denied access. In November, a member of the American Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights under Law, Dr. Erwin Griswold, acting on behalf of the Lutheran World Federation, was allowed to see a number of detainees who were flown from Ovamboland to Windhoek for the interview. But Bishop Leonard Auala, head of the Ovamboko-Kavango Lutheran Church and Dr Lukas de Vries, head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia are among those who have been refused permission.
SKINNY HILUNDWA, SWAPO Northern Region Chairman detained on 27 August at Oshakati in Ovamboland, was released on 31 October. He was reported to have contracted an illness during his detention.
