A clampdown on information by the South African military authorities in Namibia has not disguised the fact that a large-scale SWAPO military operation took place in the first quarter of the year.
Claims by the South West Africa Territory Force (SWATF) that SWAPO's military offensive has been 'winding down' were belied by statistics released at the end of 1985. According to official figures, clashes between guerillas of the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) and the South African occupation forces took place at the rate of two or three a week throughout the year. (Nam 25.12.85)
In the first week of January this year, the SWAPO representative in Zimbabwe, Jesaja Nyamu, stated that PLAN was in the process of stepping up its operations. He said it was taking advantage of the cover provided by the rainy season, and would soon be landing 'devastating blows' against the occupation forces. A 'military corridor' had been opened up in the north of Namibia, he said, allowing PLAN guerillas to 'strike deep into white areas, even in Windhoek'. (Nam 10.1.86)
At the end of February, SWAPO's office in Luanda, Angola, issued a 'War Communique' giving detailed information on PLAN operations from the beginning of the year until 19 February. The dates and places of clashes were listed, together with the names of some of the police and soldiers killed, and in some cases the military registration numbers of personnel or vehicles.
The communique stated that 120 members of the 'enemy forces' had been killed during January and February, that telephone and power lines had been sabotaged, and 20 military vehicles destroyed.
Details were provided of ambushes of military vehicles on 5, 8, 11 and 24 January and on 4 and 11 February. On 16 January an SADF convoy was reported to have fallen into a PLAN ambush, resulting in the death of 20 soldiers. Fire-fights between PLAN and South African forces were reported on 1 and 29 January and on 14 and 16 February. The SADF base at Nkongo was attacked on 10 February in an action which left 15 soldiers dead. Earlier a water tank at the Ogongo base was sabotaged. In addition, several military and police vehicles were destroyed by landmines and their occupants killed or wounded. At the end of January, most of the north of Namibia was blacked out following a sabotage attack on electricity pylons. (SWAPO War Communique 26.2.86)
A further communique issued by SWAPO at the end of March stated that 'despite the conspiracy of silence by the South African occupation army... it is a fact that not a single day passes without attacks against enemy forces'. The communique listed PLAN actions during the second half of February and the first two weeks of March. It also included some actions during January which had not been reported in the earlier statement.
Comprehensive details of clashes were provided, including again some of the names of police and soldiers killed. These actions, which included several ambushes and clashes, landmine and sabotage operations and attacks on military or police bases, resulted in the death of 97 soldiers and policemen. This brought to 217 the total number of the occupation forces killed by SWAPO during the first quarter of 1986. (BBC 3.4.86)
Hardly any of these clashes were reported by the SWATF or the South African Defence Force (SADF). Throughout the first quarter of the year military headquarters in Windhoek released almost no information other than rising figures for the number of PLAN guerillas claimed to have been killed, and statements that the situation was under control. By the end of March the official figure for PLAN casualties had risen to about 200. (BBC 27.3.86)
A few details of major actions were reported in the Namibian press — usually incidents in which the information could not be suppressed because they involved the death of white troops or SWAPO attacks near white residential areas. Such incidents included a 'skirmish' in which a senior officer in the SWATF, Commandant Charles Hochapfel, was killed, a mortar attack on a water pumping station and the sabotage of electricity lines at the end of March. (WA 23/27.3.86, WO 27.3.86)
On 6 April a base of the Counter-Insurgency Police (Koevoet) at Onhangwena in Northern Namibia, was attacked by a force of over fifty guerillas. On 21 April the garrison town of Ongwdiva was attacked with mortars and rockets. Early in May two simultaneous attacks on electricity supply lines blacked out Oshakati, a military headquarters for the principal war zone, and caused damage estimated by a Namibian newspaper at over R1,500,000. On 5 May the South African Air Force admitted that one of its Dakota military transport aircraft had been forced to make an emergency landing after coming under fire from PLAN guerillas. It was initially said to have come under small arms fire, but later the Air Force admitted that it had been hit by an anti-aircraft missile. SWAPO claimed that another Dakota had also been forced down. (WA 7/22.4.86; WO 3.5.86; BBC 13.5.86)
The Namibian press also reported that the bodies of dead guerillas had been tied to the spare wheels and bumpers of two military vehicles and driven round residential and business areas of Oshakati. The incident took place on 4 May, the day commemorated in Namibia as Kassinga Day to mark the massacre of over 600 Namibian refugees in Angola in 1978. Residents were reported to be horrified. One was quoted as saying: 'These guerillas are the sons and fathers of our people and if the Security Forces think that they are impressing us with their victories then they are mistaken. They are filling us with revolt and disgust. Strong feelings of resistance to the activities of the police and army were also voiced at meeting held in the northern town of Ombantu. Residents accused police and troops of deliberately destroying crops and property and indiscriminately beating up and killing people. (Nam 9/16.5.86)
