Lawyers acting for the family of Ruben (Aita) EDMUND (30) who was detained on 28 November 1986 discovered in July that he had died shortly after his arrest.
Edmund's uncle, David Ekondo, from whose house he was taken, had made a High Court application for his release, citing as respondents the MPC administration and the South African Minister of Defence. This was brought to court in late June and postponed to 24 July, at which point a sworn statement from the Deputy State Attorney made it clear that Edmund had died on 28 November. A judicial inquest was held in December though no verdict was reported. A post-mortem report was amongst documents submitted to the court. Faced with this information Edmund's family withdrew their application for his release and said they were seeking 'alternative legal remedies'.
Affidavits before the court came from David Ekondo and Andreas ABISAI, who was detained with Edmund. On the morning of 28 November the two men fled in fear from a contingent of police (presumed by Abisai to be 'Koevoet') which approached them near Oitende.
Abisai was captured and detained for one week. He was severely assaulted when he denied that Edmund, whom he had known for years, was a 'trained insurgent'. He was beaten with sticks, whips and a hosepipe; was suffocated by having his head forced into a hole in the ground and covered with sand; and kept blindfolded for long periods. Part of Abisai's detention was spent at the Ruacana military base.
An eye-witness told Ekondo that his nephew, who had run in the opposite direction from Abisai, was also captured by police. He was 'seriously assaulted, ... loaded into a Casspir and taken away'. Ekondo took action immediately, getting a local official to make enquiries at the Outapi police base. They were told that Edmund was being held for questioning and would possibly be released after a few days. When they made further enquiries on 9 January they were told that neither Edmund nor the police who had previously answered their questions were then at the base. At the end of January Ekondo asked the Lutheran Church to take up the matter, a request which culminated in the High Court hearing in July.
While these enquiries were being made the authorities were aware that Edmund had died. A post-mortem was carried out on 5 December giving the cause of death as 'subarachnoid haemorrhage', indicating damage to the brain or spinal cord. The face and body were marked by 'multiple contusions and abrasions'. In addition the body was 'markedly dehydrated'.
Sergeant Jan Johannes Labuschagne, a member of Koevoet based at Opuwo, spoke of Edmund's death. He said that his unit (Z5-Tango) was deployed in the area following reports of insurgent activity. He alleged that they followed tracks to a homestead from where a man (Edmund) ran out into the path of their vehicle. They arrested and interrogated him and in the 10 minutes before he died Labuschagne alleged that Edmund admitted being a 'terrorist' and having buried his gun in Angola before infiltrating the country. Labuschagne went on:
'During the interrogation it looked as if the man was playing the fool, since he was pretending to lose consciousness. He was given a few light blows as well as a few blows on the buttocks with a stick. In each case he reacted except in the last instance.'
Ekondo denied that his nephew had ever been to Angola or received any military training. In his words, 'any belief to the contrary on the part of the security forces must be mistaken'.
David Smuts, the family's lawyer, drew attention to a similar case which is also under investigation by him – that of Simeon AMUKOTO who died shortly after being detained on 3 December last year. As in Edmund's case, the armed forces denied all knowledge of the detainee. Finally a relative went to the mortuary at Oshakati where he identified Amukoto's body on 13 January. The Deputy Attorney General had since ascertained that 'the deceased's death occurred during his detention and that prior to his death he sustained injuries consistent with assaults'.
Three members of the police Counter-Insurgency Unit have been named as criminally liable for the death of an elderly Namibian killed at his home in Omopumaka. Magistrate G B van Pletzen ruled that Amaladu IITA (68) was killed by a number of policemen, three of whom he named. He said that the file on the inquest, concluded in early September in the northern circuit, would be passed to the Attorney General for a decision regarding prosecution. The news report did not mention the date of lita's death.
Lita, a long-time worker with the Tsumeb Corporation, was severely assaulted by Koevoet on two occasions, the second time fatally. Ndayola lita described how the police picked her husband up by the arms and legs, swung him and hurled him against a split-pole fence so violently that the mine helmet he was wearing broke in two. He was repeatedly assaulted when he was unable to answer questions about 'insurgents' allegedly operating in the area. After this attack his whole body was swollen and he was unable to eat. She had no medicine and could only apply hot compresses to soothe his pain.
A few days later, before he had recovered, the police returned. This time they whipped lita and his 17-year-old daughter Marie using mak-alani sticks made from the central rib of a palm frond. His 13-year-old son Josef watched through the outer fence as his father was forced to kneel down and be beaten. He was able to identify at least one of the attackers, Tulonga Anomas, as they beat his father until he keeled over. The police ordered Marie to pour water over him to revive him but he was already dead.
