Atrocities against civilians, including beatings, electric shock torture and wanton killings were on the increase in the Kavango bantustan war zone, a Namibian politician, Hans Rohr, told journalists at a press conference in December 1984. His account of a number of incidents involving police and army brutality was supplemented by further evidence published in the SWAPO Information Bulletin, which also listed a number of detentions.
Rohr said he had tried in vain to use the 'proper military complaints channels'. There had been no comeback about several allegations he had made over three months previously.
He cited several new cases of brutality against civilians. In one incident, eight people had been arrested at Mpungu and held at the nearby army base at Nepara for no apparent reason. They were Paavo SIRONGO, Paulus FESTUS, Aeino HAMUTENYA, Nakanura SIRONGO, Immanuel TOBIAS, Mwandu LIMBUNDI, Otto NAIRENGE and Josef LEO. Seven of the eight men were later released, but Rohr had not been able to confirm the whereabouts of Mwandu Limbundi. They were all badly beaten while in custody.
In another incident described to him by inhabitants of Katwitwi, a small village on the Namibia/Angola border, an army patrol had visited the village. Two 12 year old boys who had previous experience of brutality from the armed forces ran away with fright and were pursued by the patrol after crossing the border into Angola. One of the boys was shot dead from an army helicopter. Rohr also told journalists that two youths in Kavango were given electric shocks after being accused of helping SWAPO guerillas, despite evidence that they were at school 70 miles away.
Johannes MUKUVE, who was abducted in July 1984 by a group of men wearing SWAPO uniforms, reappeared in early December and told his friends that he had been held for two months at an SADF detention camp in Ovambo.
Ndara Kapitango, who was severely injured in June 1983 when soldiers held him over a fire and later tossed him into the hot coals, died of his injuries, Rohr reported. The two soldiers were fined R50 each. Information released by SWAPO includes reports of several other killings of civilians in 1984. In June, two civilians were reportedly killed at Oshigambo while going to church, and three others wounded at a village near Kongo. The attackers were identified as trackers of a South African army unit stationed nearby. In the same month, two men, Robert Fillemon and Phillipus Endjala were shot and wounded at Elim, a town near Oshakati, for failing to report the presence of SWAPO combatants in the area. Five persons travelling in a car near Okando were killed when a South African helicopter gunship opened fire. In another incident, one man, Nehemia Shipashu, was wounded and three relatives, all women, killed by shots fired from a helicopter gunship. One of the women was seven months pregnant. The official explanation for the attack was that the four had violated the night curfew, the SWAPO report said. A 43 year old man, Japuleni Kambilili, was shot dead by South African troops in the Ongandjera area in July.
SWAPO reported the arrest of seven people on 5 August at Etoto near Ruacana. They are Manyulu KAKONDO, Johannes EKANDJO, Taatu SHOOYA, Sam HAKENYA, Thomas TJIMWAHILI, Mbwiti HALWENDO and Allot SHIWEDHA.
