A number of people were arrested during March and detained under Security Proclamation AG9, in the course of security police operations in the Kavango area and in Windhoek.
A security police spokesman confirmed at the beginning of March that five prominent Kavango residents were being held for questioning under AG9. Additional names became available from other sources during the next few days.
The five named by the security police were: * Pastor Asser LIHONGO, a churchman and Dean of the Evangelical Lutheran Ovambo-Kavango Church (ELOK), from Rupara village * Elia NGHILUNDILUA (also given as NIL-UNDILUA), a teacher of Mpungu village * Reinhold KANGUMA, a businessman of Mpungu village * Jona OIVA, a teacher of Nkurenkuru * Amos SIRONGO, a teacher of Rupara village
Other names of persons believed to have been arrested during the first few days of March included: * Amon KANIME, arrested at Rupara and described as a 'hostel father' * Frans KATURA, a teacher from Nkurenkuru village * Nimrod MUREMI, 28, a senior government clerk at Rundu * Edward SHIKONGO, 30, a clerk of Barclays Bank in Rundu * Abraham MUYEMU, 31, a librarian at Kanjimi secondary school, 125 km west of Rundu * Robert NGHWADA, 26, a teacher at Kanjimi secondary school
(The above four people were reportedly arrested between 9 and 11 March).
A spokesman for the Windhoek security police, confirming that Nimrod Muremi and Frans Katura had been detained, announced two further names of persons detained in western Kavango: * Edward HAUSIKU * Erestu HAINDONGO
Pastor Lihongo was previously detained on 4 November 1982 together with at least 25 others in the western part of Kavango (and possible as many as 70). Two of those held for questioning by the security police and the South West Africa Territory Force (SWATF) at this time died within a few hours of being arrested. Pastor Lihongo himself was released after five days without being charged.
A special contingent of 30 policemen mounted a nocturnal raid on the premises of the Roman Catholic church in Windhoek on 4 March, arresting at least eight men.
Those detained were believed to have later been moved to a special detention camp at Dordabis, 60 miles south-east of Windhoek. They included: * Vendelini JOHANNES, of Oshikushashipya * Daniel FRANZ, of liputu * Petrus KAPWEYA, of Uukwaluudhi * Silas MATHEUS, of Omagalanga * lipinge UUNONA, also of Omagalanga * Johannes FESTUS, of Ondangwa * Absalon ZACHARIS, of Ondangwa * ONESIMUS (no other name given, place of origin unknown)
Some of the police deployed in the raid were dressed in camouflage battle fatigues. According to one unconfirmed report, the police had been tipped off that SWAPO guerillas were in Katutura and various other places in Windhoek itself, unarmed but surveying the situation.
No church offices were raided by the police and no papers taken, suggesting that the men themselves, rather than the church and its activities, were the main targets. None of those arrested was a church employee or office bearer.
After making the arrests on church property in the city itself, the police moved to its premises near Pionierspark, in the northern suburbs. A thorough search was made, but no-one was arrested.
A police officer later said that 'there was nothing to be read into the raid on the Catholic Church premises'. The church was but one of a number of targets because several people who were not supposed to be there had found lodgings on the premises.
The raid coincided with the arrest of a Roman Catholic nun, Sister Bernard Ncube, at the Companions of St Angela convent near Krugersdorp in South Africa.
