The publicity given by South Africa to the release of 74 Kassinga detainees on 18 October 1984 contrasted sharply with the complete secrecy surrounding their six-and-a-half years in detention. Journalists were flown to Oshakati, elders from the Ovambo bantustan were invited, and refreshments were provided as officials of the SWA Territory Force (SWATF) handed the prisoners over to elders of their respective communities.
The impression of festivities created by the armed forces was contradicted by reports that some of the detainees had been put under pressure to join the army or co-operate with the South African regime in other ways, and that they had been threatened that 'Koevoet would get them' if they refused. One detainee, Petrus HAIMBONDI, was kept in custody after reportedly refusing to join 101 Battalion, the Ovambo bantustan section of the SWATF. A military spokesman said he would be held indefinitely because it had been decided that he was still a 'security risk'. Many of the released detainees were reported to have made their way to the south of the country for fear of harassment by the armed forces in the north.
The 74 detainees were released after having been transferred from Keikamachab detention camp near Mariental to a military camp in the north at Oshivelo for what an army press release described as a one-week 'orientation course'. A spokesman for the SWATF told reporters that a military commission of inquiry had found that they 'no longer posed a threat to security'. Those released are: Willy AMUTENYA, Luicas AMUTENYA, Max ANGULA, Werner ANGULA, Kanyemba ASINO, Benjamin AUSHIKO, Markus DAVID, Cornelius FARSTINES, Joshua FESTUS, Leonard FRANS, Shikozye HAIFIKU, Nutota HAIMBONDIE, Lasarus KONGO, Enkali HIPANDULWA, Levi IKANYO, Joseph INGENO, Paulus JACOBUS, Josef JOACHAM, Filemon JOHANNES, Ruben HAMUTENGELA, Asser JUNIFAS, Simon KAAPANDA, Isaac KAAIFAS, Elias KLEOPAS, Alfeus SAGARIAS, Leonard SHIMWE, Lucas MARTIN, Simon MARTIN, Abraham MBINDA, David MWNAYANANSE, Linus NAHOLE, Jacobus NAKALE, Zjulius NAKALI, Abner NANABABA, Frans NOUYOMA, Matti NOTELEKENI, Tylvas NEHEMIA, Nshitukwa NGHILINKLA, Filemon NIKODEMUS, Sakarias NUUYOMA, Noftali PAULUS, Titus SAGEUS, Matheus SHAANIKA, Albinus SHAVUKA, Elias SHIWEDHA, Julius SHIKESHO, Linus SHIMWANDI, Alrossius SHIVUTE, Himbibamor SHWAPENI, Emmanuel SISSANDE, Filippus THEOPHILIUS, Onesmas TIMOTHEUS, Samuyl TOBIAS, William GOTTFRIED, Petrus MICHAEL, Radius DIMONGELA, Johannes ALUIKO, Venasius PEUS, Matheus ANDREAS, Johannes NGHILEKWA, Albertus MATHEUS, Josef JOHANNES, Abet NATHANIEL, Linus KAMATI, Elias EMANUEL, Johannes THOMAS, Festus FERNANDO, Kamati HAIMBONDI, Toivo SIMON, Sakaria TIMOTHEUS, Willem SHIKOMBA, John ADWEENDA, Tobias TITUS, and Sam SPORTMAN.
Amalia AUPINDI (26), the only remaining female detainee at the Mariental detention camp since the release of all the other women in May 1984, was released on 11 October 1984, without any official announcement. She had been due to join the other detainees on the journey north but was suddenly told she was being freed.
Statements from the detainees after their release were clearly cicumscribed by the presence of the armed forces, and by their fear of retaliation. According to newspaper reports, 'none of the former prisoners wanted to discuss their current political feelings, though it was clear that most, if not all, still back SWAPO'.
Amalia Aupindi told reporters that she had been kept in virtual solitary confinement since May 1984. She had seen her two children, her mother and sister once during her entire period in detention, in February 1984. Asked why she was not released in May 1984, she said she suspected that the authorities were not satisfied with the answers she gave about her political views. She had told them that she would go back to SWAPO if released, because the conditions which had made her leave in 1978 had not changed. She told journalists that she had been asked by the authorities to 'come over to us' but had refused.
Ruben HAMUTENGELA, said he was still a dedicated member of SWAPO, and so were the other detainees. Several of the detainees stressed that they had gone to Angola to escape persecution in Namibia, and to get a better education. Linus SHIMWANDI (26) said he had been in Angola for only three months before being captured by the South African armed forces during the attack on the Kassinga refugee settlement. Hamutengela, recalling the attack, said he saw women being killed by South African troops. Another detainee, Frans NOUYOMA (29) said he had been captured in a South African raid into south-western Zambia in August 1978. He had left Namibia in 1974 to train as a guerilla, and had trained in Angola. Willie AMUTENYA, a former deputy regional secretary of SWAPO, said he had been captured shortly after arriving in southern Angola after fleeing from the security police in Namibia. He had lost his right arm after the attack on the refugee settlement.
Amutenya told reporters that he and his fellow detainees had been ill-treated and tortured with electric shocks by the army and police at Oshakati after their capture. None of the detainees were willing to say much about conditions at the detention camp in the presence of officials of the SWATF. One said conditions had 'not been to bad', and that the prisoners had been visited by the Red Cross.
Referring to the continued detention of HAIMBONDI, a Namibian lawyer was reported as saying that if Haimbondi or any other detainee from Keikamachab camp was still being held, legal efforts would be made to get them released.
Amalia Aupindi and 36 other detainees released in May were reported to have signed power of attorney forms giving lawyers the power to sue the Administrator General for six years of alleged unlawful detention.
