SWAPO RALLY DISRUPTED
Immanuel SHIFIDI, (58) SWAPO member and an ex-Robben Island prisoner, was killed when a SWAPO rally in Katutura held to commemorate the UN International Year of Peace on 30 November, was attacked by armed vigilantes and police. At least 21 people were injured.
Right-wing vigilantes, many of whom were subsequently identified as members of the South West Africa Territory Force's 101 Battalion and Etango, the surrogate political movement created by the military authorities in the Ovambo bantustan, infiltrated the 3,000-strong crowd. After being forced to leave by people from the north of the country who recognised them and by SWAPO stewards, they returned armed with pangas, knobkieries, assegais, bows and arrows and shotguns. Shifidi was one of those attacked. He died of stab wounds.
Shortly after the crowd was attacked, police Casspirs arrived: teargas and rubber bullets were fired at people leaving the meeting. Police activity continued for several hours after the meeting had ended and in areas of Katutura far removed from where the rally took place. Police randomly attacked people in the street, pursued others into houses and smashed the windows of vehicles. Police claimed that they came to restore order after fighting broke out. However, eyewitnesses and SWAPO representatives made statements which indicated that the police operations were in support of the vigilantes.
Immanuel Shifidi was released from Robben Island in November 1985 after serving 18 years of a life sentence. He was captured after the first armed clash between SWAPO guerillas and South African Police at Ongulumbashe in 1966 and subsequently tried along with Andimba Toivo ja Toivo, Elias Tuhadeleni and other SWAPO leaders. At the time of his death he was working for the Council of Churches in Namibia.
He was buried at a funeral attended by 4,000 mourners. The meeting was addressed by SWAPO leaders including the Vice-President Hendrick Witbooi, Acting President Nathaniel Maxuilili, and the Lutheran vice-bishop Zephania Kameeta. His coffin was draped in the SWAPO colours. Many of the pallbearers were veterans of the early period of the armed struggle.
The Administrator-General turned down calls by SWAPO and the Council of Churches for an independent judicial inquiry into the incident.
Police and vigilante activity has been a feature of a number of gatherings held since the Supreme Court decision in July that SWAPO could once again hold meetings. The organisation had been prohibited from doing so since 1981.
In June, the Corpus Christi procession convened by local churches was attacked by vigilantes, some of whom were subsequently identified as members of the NUDO movement. It is linked to the Herero bantustan authorities and the DTA party in the MPC administration. In October the SWAPO Education Secretary and Namibia Literacy Project Director, Joshua HOEBEB obtained an interdict against Unotjari KATJUMINE, a NUDO member, restraining him from assaulting Hoebeb or unlawfully interfering with his human rights. He was also ordered to surrender any firearms in his possession.
The court order followed an incident in which Hoebeb was attacked and shot at by men wielding poles and guns while he was sitting in his parked car on the night of 8 June. During the incident he recognised Katjumine as one of the vigilantes who had been present when the Corpus Christi procession was attacked.
UNITA BASES IN NAMIBIA
Details have emerged of how the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the South African-backed destabilisation force active in Angola, is supplied through bases in northern Namibia.
UNITA purchases foodstuffs and clothes from a Johannesburg-based company, FRAMA Inter-Trading, which has close links with the South African Defence Force (SADF). It finances these purchases through the sale to FRAMA of large quantities of valuable Angolan teak which are shipped down the Cuando river into Namibia. There have also been reports of a UNITA trade in ivory and diamonds.
The only land supply link to the UNITA headquarters at Jamba, 150 kilometres from the Namibian border, runs south to connect with the Bagani-Kongola road which traverses the length of the Caprivi strip. In turn, Bagani is connected by a road which runs along the south bank of the Kavango river to the major military and administrative centre at Rundu. From Rundu a macadamised highway runs south to the SADF logistical headquarters at Grootfontein, which in turn is connected by road and rail with Windhoek. It is this route which is used to supply UNITA with maize, clothing and other material from South Africa and which is used to transport Angolan teak to the industrial centres of the Transvaal, 3,000 kilometres away.
The supplies are transported in metal containers - some with the seal of the SADF - on a fleet of trucks owned by FRAMA. The company is exempt from applying for road carrier permits and many of its vehicles are reported to have been operating without licence discs. The trucks are waved through military roadblocks where other vehicles are stopped and in many cases searched. A section of a report carried out by the Department of Transport Services inquiring into FRAMA was classified as secret by the South African Administrator-General and has not been published.
The SADF is currently engaged in macadamising the 400 kilometre Rundu-Bagani section of the route to the Caprivi, which will increase the efficiency with which the string of bases along the Kavango river and in the Caprivi Strip can be supplied.
The eastern Kavango-western Caprivi area has become one of the most militarised areas in Namibia. Rundu itself is a garrison town, the headquarters of Military Sector 20 and of 201 and 202 Battalions of the South West Africa Territory Force (SWATF). It is also a major airbase and logistical centre. A sawmill used to cut the Angolan teak is sited in the town. A number of agricultural projects have been set up by the SADF along the Kavango River to supply troops. FRAMA storage and transport facilities are also dotted along the river.
UNITA troops are much in evidence on the Namibian side of the border and have apparently been placed in control of some areas. It has been reported that local people wishing to cross into southern Angola - which has been largely depopulated as a result of South African invasion - have to obtain permission from UNITA. At its easternmost point, the Kavango River border is crossed at Mukwe by a ferry service run by FRAMA. On the other side of the river lies the settlement of Mucusso, which is connected to UNITA's Jamba headquarters by air and a network of tracks which can be traversed by four-wheel drive vehicles. Macusso is a stop-over point for flights to Jamba from South Africa, which are reportedly being regularised through the establishment of an 'airline' called Wonder Air, operating DC-3 aircraft from Wonderboom airport outside Pretoria.
The area west of Mukwe, across the Kavango river and into the Caprivi strip, has been cleared of its local population and is officially zoned as a game reserve. This huge area (8,000 square kilometres) is the site of two major military bases, which are involved in supporting UNITA operations in Angola. Near Bagani the Buffalo base houses the notorious 32 Battalion, composed of Angolan mercenaries commanded by white SADF officers and a diminishing contingent of foreign mercenaries. The battalion publicly commemorated its tenth anniversary at a parade in March 1986. Present at the ceremonies was the Secretary-General of UNITA, 'Brigadier' N'zau Puna. His presence underlined the close relationship between 32 Battalion and UNITA. Over the past decade the battalion has carried out numerous operations which have been claimed by UNITA. The unit operates exclusively in Angola and has been accused by defectors of widespread atrocities.
