Information obtained by SWAPO from an unidentified source inside Namibia indicates that detainees have been offered substantial financial rewards in return for information on guerilla movements and activity. A document received by the liberation movement's Western European office describes how the S.A. Defence Force are engaged in building up a military informer network in the north of the country.
The source reported that, while in detention, s/he and others were given a paper in Afrikaans headed *Since we returned to the country*, which urged the reader:
- Report yourself to the defence force
- Report where your gun is
- Show your gun to the soldiers and you will receive R1,000
- Ask for a job with the defence forces
The paper assured the reader:
- We shall not reveal your presence to the defence forces
- Any revelation will be done with your consent, and you will again receive R1,000
The same source noted that:
Many of the detainees were innocent people but were simply detained in those camps to be persuaded later to join the SA Defence Force. You hardly see these people (detainees) speak freely, because they were told that they would be tortured for every single word that they would not let out their mouths. Most of the detainees were told that they would be freed on condition that they would report without delay anybody who might be suspected of being a SWAPO Freedom Fighter and they would be paid R500. They must also never tell this to their wives or their neighbours - so they were warned.
At Oshakati I managed to whisper to some handicapped detainees - some of them are without legs and some without arms. According to those handicapped detainees they were shot at by the SA forces while they were in their houses and then later on were brought out to the detention centres.
Among those people (detainees) were mothers with small babies, some of whom had to leave their children in the camps or in their homes.
All the detainees I met in those camps weep whenever they listen to the SA soldiers imitating the voices of people being tortured with electricity and in many other ways by these fascist white South African soldiers.
