Further evidence has emerged of the harsh security measures being enforced by South Africa's armed forces in the Kavango region of north-eastern Namibia. Journalists, opposition politicians and others have meanwhile been warned by the South African authorities that they could face prosecution under the Defence Act for publishing information about alleged mistreatment of civilians by the security forces.
A press conference called in Tsumeb in August by the leader of the Namibia Christian Democratic Party (NCDP), in particular, produced startling accounts of mass population removals in the Namibia-Angola border area, and of the interrogation, intimidation and torture of local residents suspected of being in contact with SWAPO. Such accounts have been repeatedly denied by the South African Defence Force (SADF), which has set up a series of military boards of inquiry.
The security measures, directed against both individuals and communities, are intended to destroy all forms of civilian support for SWAPO's armed struggle. Their severity in itself suggests that PLAN (People's Liberation Army of Namibia) guerillas may be considerably more active in the region than is implied by much of the South African government's information and publicity material.
Police and army activity in Kavango seems to have been intense since at least November 1982, when two detainees died during a concerted drive against SWAPO guerillas and sympathisers. The introduction in February 1983 of full-scale military censorship over all reporting from the war zone, however, has made it extremely difficult to corroborate and evaluate the isolated reports of guerilla offensives and successes that do from time to time appear.
The leader of the NCDP, Hans Rohr, has played a particularly prominent role in publicising allegations of atrocities by the security forces. In July, he sent an open letter to the Administrator-General, listing various cases of assault and torture, expressing his 'strongest protest at the actions of the security force in the north' and calling for countrywide steps to stop such incidents and to punish offenders heavily. His letter, which drew on a two month investigation, earned him a veiled warning from the SWA Territory Force (SWATF) of possible prosecution under the Defence Act, on charges of making 'allegations, statements and comments or [spreading] rumours calculated to prejudice or embarrass the SADF'. It nevertheless may have prompted the SADF to issue, on 20 July, the findings of the second military board of inquiry set up to investigate allegations of security force misconduct in Kavango. The board's report by and large exonerated the security forces and concluded that no disciplinary steps needed to be taken against any SADF members in the case of a Kavango citizen, Asser Likuwa, killed 'accidentally' in a firefight.
The SWATF did not react directly to the charges in Rohr's open letter, but a third military board of inquiry, again headed by Brigadier de Wet Roos, began taking evidence shortly afterwards. On 1 August, the NCDP leader called a press conference in Tsumeb, at which five Kavango men, all victims of torture and assault, told their stories to journalists. Rohr himself accused the armed forces of calculated distortions and of conducting a campaign to turn the Kavango-speaking region into a 'broad shooting range'.
Rohr repeated allegations, denied by the second military board of inquiry, that thousands of people in the Kavango region were being forced to move from their homes and resettle along the northern Kavango River border close to military bases. 'The military are saying they want a fire-clear zone where anyone who moves is SWAPO and must be shot,' Rohr told journalists. 'I was there, I have seen them, seven or eight settlements and I am told there are many more. There are places that are being totally depopulated, hundreds even thousands are being moved'.
Rohr's witnesses, whom he said had been picked 'at random' from the area, confirmed the picture of assault, intimidation and widespread disruption of people's lives through the behaviour of the military.
The first witness, Mpazi Sitentu, was a man of over 80 and the father of the Chief of the Kwangali, the largest Kavango grouping. Sitentu said that on 17 June, six white soldiers and one black had arrived at his home at Mpungu, western Kavango. They threw his bedding around, confiscated his rifle and took a purse containing R400 in cash. He was accused of giving shelter to SWAPO guerillas, charges which were repeated a few days later when a larger group of soldiers arrived in three armoured Buffel troop carriers. He was threatened with death, abused and pushed around. A young male relative was taken aside by the soldiers and an 'execution' simulated in an apparent attempt to trick and intimidate the old man.
The second witness, Petrus Kanjanga, aged about 50 and from the village of Katope, told the press of his torture with electric shocks during two weeks' detention in December 1982. He had been accused of supplying SWAPO guerillas with food, and described how the electric wiring was plugged in, the exposed ends tied round his big toe and left ear. A pail stood by, from which water was dripped onto the wires to compound the effect of the electric jolts. Later, he was bound hand and foot and slid into a hole in the ground covered with corrugated iron, where he was kept throughout the night until noon the next day.
A male nurse from a clinic in Kakuhu, Johannes Kasamba (28), told how he had been driven by his interrogaters to make a false statement admitting giving medical treatment to a wounded guerilla. He had been arrested at the clinic in April 1983 and taken to Rundi, where he was threatened with execution. He was held for two months in what he called a 'cage', a kind of shed made of zinc or corrugated iron, topped with barbed wire and divided into eight sections each measuring about two square metres. Each such section or cage was intended for five detainees, he said, but in practice held more. While held in the cage he was not allowed a change of clothing and had to sleep on a 'dirty mattress with one dirty blanket'.
The second military board of inquiry, before whom Kasamba had been brought as a witness, stated that he was released on 9 May. Kasamba himself said that he was detained until 7 June, however.
Other witnesses, Paulus Sinoka (42), a farmer, and Damien Haikera (33), a teacher, both from Kaguni, described further assaults, intimidation and being forced to flee from their homes into fugitive camps along the Kavango River.
Later in August, Rohr appealed to the Western Contact Group, through the US Embassy in Pretoria, to protest about the behaviour of the Koevoet special police unit and the arbitrary arrest of a number of prominent NCDP members.
