MARKUS KATEKA (40), a Namibian farm worker sentenced to death on 13 October 1980 for assisting SWAPO guerillas, is believed to be still held in Windhoek Central Prison together with his co-defendant HENDRIK KARIZEB (sentenced to 10 years).
A petition is reported to have been sent to the Chief Justice in Bloemfontein by Advocate Pio Teek, seeking leave to appeal against the death sentence. Advocate Teek, who appeared for the two accused in the trial before the Windhoek Supreme Court, said that counsel had been briefed in the matter. Leave to appeal was refused by the presiding judge in Windhoek, following the passing of the sentences.
The Registrar of the Windhoek Supreme Court stated on enquiry that the record of the death sentence had been sent to the Secretary of Justice who in turn would submit it to the State President-in-Council. In the event of the petition to the Chief Justice failing, then the record of the death sentence could still lead to a decision of clemency by the State President-in-Council.
Advocate Teek stated in December 1980 that he had received numerous inquiries about the case from representatives of foreign governments, including a West German diplomat. The Supreme Court's decision to impose the death penalty has provoked numerous international protests. Hundreds of letters have been sent to the authorities in South Africa and Namibia by concerned organisations and individuals overseas, with copies to the Namibian press. Within a month of sentence being passed, the Windhoek Observer, which has given considerable coverage to the campaign, had received nearly 100 protest letters, from the Scandinavian countries, the Low countries, Western, Central and Eastern Europe, the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, the Balkans, the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
It is understood that a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross visited Markus Kateka in prison in November 1980.
RESTRICTEES FREED
Three members of SWAPO living in Namibia under restriction orders were released by the South African authorities to attend the Pre-Implementation Conference in Geneva on UN Security Council Resolution 435 (1978). SWAPO had previously approached the UN Secretary General for his assistance in getting the SWAPO officials to the Conference.
The three officials, who joined an eight-person SWAPO delegation from inside Namibia, were PHILIP TJERIJE, SWAPO Publicity and Information Secretary; Dr. THOMAS IHUHUA and MARKUS HAUSIKU. Phillip Tjerije and Dr. Ihuhua were placed under restriction orders on being released from detention in February 1980. Markus Hausiku and Dr. Ihuhua were both arrested and detained in a general round-up of SWAPO officials in April 1979.
PRISONERS ABSENT FROM GENEVA
Four members of the SWAPO delegation to the Pre-Implementation Conference were not present at Geneva. Three of them, HERMAN TOIVO JA TOIVO, JEREMIAH EKANDJO and LAZARUS GUITEB are all political prisoners serving sentences on Robben Island. A demand from SWAPO that they and other Namibian political prisoners be released in time for the Geneva Conference was refused by the South African government. The fourth is BRENDAN SIMBWAYE. At the time of his arrest in 1964 he was Vice-President of SWAPO.
RED CROSS VISITS
SWAPO Administrator General Danie Hough stated in November 1980 that the International Committee of the Red Cross would be given regular access to detainees held in Namibia in terms of security legislation. Representatives of the ICRC met the AG shortly before his announcement and accepted an invitation to visit detainees "under the usual internationally accepted procedure".
NNF LEADERS RELEASED
Two youth leaders of the Namibia National Front (NNF), a grouping of small political parties in Namibia, were released from detention under Proclamation AG9 in January 1981. ADOPLHUS KANGOOTUI and LAZARUS NANUHE, both members of SWANU, one of the component parties of the NNF, were reported to have been detained in connection with the recruitment of young people for guerilla training outside Namibia.
ROBBEN ISLAND DEATH
JONAS SHISHILENI (SHISHVENI) SHIMUEFELENI, a Namibian political prisoner serving an 18 year sentence on Robben Island, died on 1 August 1980 at Groote Schuur Hospital. He was 49. An abridged death certificate issued by the Department of Bantu Administration and Development gives the cause of death as "pulmonary oedema as a result of chronic renal failure hypoalbuminaemia from peritoneal dialysis".
Jonas Shimuefeleni was arrested in March 1966 and detained in Pretoria Central Prison for two and a half years before being brought to trial under the Terrorism Act. He and seven others were charged with undergoing military training in the USSR and Egypt, conspiring to overthrow the South African regime, and participating in a range of guerilla activities inside Namibia between 1962 and 1968. Two of the accused were acquitted, five were sentenced to life imprisonment and Jonas Shimuefeleni to 18 years.
He was known to have suffered from a severe kidney condition for a number of years and on several occasions doctors had recommended that he be released.
ELDERLY PARENTS HOMELESS
In January 1980, while he was in detention, Axel Johannes' elderly parents, living in the north of Namibia, were made homeless when their farm was burnt down and property destroyed. Axel Johannes stated his conviction to IDAF that the South African police were responsible. In 1979, in an earlier attack on his parents' home, livestock were shot and seeds for planting destroyed, he said.
Axel Johannes last saw his mother, aged over 70, at the beginning of 1979. In March 1980 his father, a clan head aged 93, and half-blind, was permitted to see him briefly in Windhoek prison, accompanied by a lawyer, to discuss legal matters arising from the destruction of the family farm. During his subsequent restriction to Katutura, Axel Johannes was not permitted to travel to the north of Namibia to see his relatives.
In July 1980 an urgent application was brought before the Windhoek Supreme Court by lawyers acting on behalf of Johannes Ashinkono, father of Axel Johannes. The application, which was unsuccessful, sought to institute legal proceedings against the Minister of Police and the Government of Ovamboland, and compensation for property destroyed by members of the security forces in an attack on 28 January 1980.
At the end of 1980, Axel Johannes' mother and father, together with other relatives, were still living in temporary corrugated iron shelters in the bush.
DETENTION BY THE ARMY
In his interview with IDAF, Axel Johannes stressed the severity of conditions for those arrested and detained by members of the South African army and SWA/Namibia Territory Force, as opposed to the police (i.e. particularly under the 'martial law' regulations, AG9). These detainees are likely to be held in military camps and bases rather than in regular prisons, sometimes in corrugated iron huts or cells, Axel Johannes told IDAF that such detainees are known to have been continuously blindfolded throughout their imprisonment, even when being taken to the toilet or at mealtimes. Some are known to have suffered permanent mental disturbance as a result.
Army camps where detainees are held are located in the central part of Namibia as well as the north. The Hardap Dam camp, near Mariental, where the Kassinga detainees are held, is a case in point.
