CONSCRIPTION PROTEST SPREADS The People's Action Committee, formed in July 1981 to coordinate opposition to compulsory military service, has held a number of rallies and meetings in the southern part of Namibia in recent months (FOCUS 36 p.3).
Support for the movement, which has called for the repeal of legislation extending military service to Namibians of all races, has grown despite harrassment from the authorities and the police.
At a public meeting in Katutura in August, attended by about 100 parents whose sons had been called up, two national servicemen spoke on behalf of 32 recruits whose training had been stopped when they identified themselves as members of SWAPO (FOCUS 36 p.3).
One of the men, Rifleman Abraham Darius, rejected a claim by the General Officer Commanding SWA Territory Force, Major General Charles Lloyd, that ten SWAPO supporters had changed their minds after a reorientation course and had expressed themselves in favour of national service. Darius said he was a member of SWAPO, and confirmed that he and other SWAPO members had been discriminated against and victimised because of their support for SWAPO. Contrary to the claims made by General Lloyd, his views had not been changed by the reorientation course, but had rather been strengthened, Darius said. It was not a question of wanting to return to border duty, but rather of being forced to go back as opponents could not resign from the Defence Force (Information, Newsletter of the Council of Churches of Namibia, September 1981; WA 12.8.81).
Another meeting organised by the People's Action Committee in the black township near Okahandja in September was addressed by Gabriel Shikongo, Secretary of SWAPO's Windhoek branch, and Mrs. Ottilie Abrahams, a founder member of the People's Action Committee. She called for meetings to be held throughout the territory (WA 29.9.81).
Cars filled with security police were present at several rallies held in the southern, western and central parts of Namibia. Although the protest meetings have been conducted peacefully, the Action Committee was refused permission to hold a demonstration and march in Windhoek in October. It planned to hold a mass meeting in late November, preceded by a number of public meetings in different parts of the country (WO 24.10.81).
AGGRESSION AGAINST ANGOLA— THE TASKS OF NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION The large scale South African invasion of southern Angola, launched on 23 August 1981 and codenamed 'Operation Protea' by the South African Defence Force, 'seriously affected (Angola's) national political life and... exacted additional efforts in the economic, social and military fields which... greatly altered the country's plans and programmes'.
A communique issued by the Central Committee of the MPLA-Workers' Party, at the close of a four day meeting held in Luanda from 17–20 November 1981 under the Chairmanship of President dos Santos, called on Party members and all the Angolan people to 'commit themselves totally' to the tasks of national reconstruction and the defence of the Angolan revolution in view of the grave economic and military situation facing the country (BBC 24.11.81).
At the time of the MPLA's Central Committee meeting, it had not as yet been possible to quantify the extent of the South African devastation in southern Angola in detail. The two overriding reasons for this state of affairs were, unquestionably, the huge scale and wide-ranging nature of the damage inflicted upon Angola's social and economic infrastructure by South African forces, and secondly, the inability of the Angolan authorities to reach extensive areas of the south to carry out surveys or indeed for any other purpose.
CONTINUED AGGRESSION Despite South African denials, large parts of southern Angola, notably in Kunene province, continued to be dominated and effectively controlled by the South African army and air force as 1981 drew to a close. While international press attention in the situation in southern Angola waned rapidly from the beginning of September onwards, continuing communiques from the Angolan government, together with the accounts of visitors and other observers, confirmed the picture of sustained aggression.
At the end of September 1981, for example, a renewed offensive was launched by South African and UNITA forces who had been massing at the Eenhana base in northern Namibia, leading to the reoccupation of Xangongo, Mongua and Ngiva (Communique issued by the Angolan Ministry of Defence 6.10.81). On 26 October, South African heliborne troops were landed in the immediate vicinity of Cahama, previously subject to air bombardments only (see below). The Angolan Ministry of Defence pointed out that this operation coincided precisely with the arrival in Angola of the Western Contact Group. In Cahama, attempts by the civilian population to return to their evacuated homes received a new setback (Communique issued 27.10.81). On 5 November, six SA Air Force planes bombed and rocketed FAPLA positions in Cahama while on 6 November, two Mirage III-C-2 aircraft penetrated to the Mulondo area, more than 200 km inside Angola. An Angolan air force plane on a routine flight was engaged in a dogfight, causing it to crash (Communique issued 7.11.81).
Speaking towards the end of November, the South African Defence Minister, General Magnus Malan, warned that South Africa 'would not hesitate to launch another exercise like the recent Operation Protea in Angola should the need arise again' (BBC 23.11.81).
DISLOCATION The dislocation of population in southern Angola has been on a very large scale, with 150,000–160,000 people left homeless by the South African invasion according to preliminary estimates. In addition, 280,000 people were estimated by the end of 1981 to have been affected by the protracted drought in the south (BBC 21.11.81).
EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS Two London-based observers who visited southern Angola during September and October 1981 subsequently provided graphic accounts of the situation prevailing under the South African bombardment.
ATTACK ON JOURNALISTS MARGA HOLNESS, information officer of the Mozambique, Angola and Guine Information Centre in London, was in Angola during the first half of September 1981 – a period in which the South African military authorities made repeated claims to have withdrawn their forces. On 5 September, she accompanied a party of international journalists by road from Lubango to Cahama (on the main route south to the Namibian border). The convoy was attacked en route by a South African Impala jet and the BBC's correspondent and two Angolan soldiers wounded in the bombing – an incident which resulted in considerable publicity internationally for the war in Angola.
The journalists nevertheless continued on to the small town of Cahama – situated approximately 100 km north of the Namibian border. Cahama was at this time about 20 km north of the motorised South African front line and the entire civilian population of 3,000 residents, together with administrative officials, had fled or been killed. The town had been repeatedly bombarded by South African jets since 23 August (see also the report from Reg Austin, an international lawyer, below).
CIVILIAN CASUALTIES Throughout Marga Holness's visit, and subsequently, an estimated 40,000 square kilometres of Kunene province remained under occupation by South African forces. The civilian population was fleeing through the bush in large numbers from towns throughout southern Angola as these were attacked and overrun by South African ground troops, or bombarded by the S.A. Air Force. During their attempts to reach relative safety further north, the refugees remained exposed to systematic South African bombing missions along the roads, on top of the hardships and deprivations resulting from a prolonged drought in the sparsely populated bush country of southern Angola.
Holness collected many accounts of great personal suffering. A 16-year-old girl whom she and other journalists met and interviewed in Cahama, for example, had travelled on foot from a town further south when the latter was attacked by South African forces. Houses had been bombed and residents strafed as they ran into the bush. The girl had been six months pregnant with her first child at the time of the attack, and had soon afterwards suffered a
