Horrifying details of the role of security police and members of the SADF in the torture and murder of a detainee, the killing of an opponent of the MPC Administration and the killing of a civilian living in the war zone have been revealed in three trials in Namibia. Similar evidence has emerged from actions for damages submitted to the courts by relatives of people killed by the 'security forces'.
In the first of the trials Captain Pat King of the South African Security Branch was charged with the murder of a detainee Johannes KAKUVA in August 1980. He was also charged with assault and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm to several other detainees held at the same time. In the second trial, six members of the SADF, including four officers, were charged with the murder of SWAPO leader Immanuel SHIFIDI, an ex-Robben Island prisoner and an employee of the Council of Churches in Namibia. He was killed at a SWAPO rally in Katutura, Windhoek, in November 1986. In the third trial a soldier was charged with the murder of Wilhelm HAINDONGO, a resident of the Ovambo bantustan, in August 1986.
Johannes Kakuva The charges against King related to the disappearance seven years ago of Johannes Kakuva, a stock farmer living in the Okarare area of the Kaokoland bantustan. The trial took place in August and September in the Windhoek Supreme Court. In 1983 an official inquiry into the matter accepted the evidence of seven men detained with Kakuva that they had been assaulted and tortured. The prosecution followed a series of strong international protests at the failure of the authorities to call to account those involved.
The men were detained in August 1980, during a police operation aimed at obstructing SWAPO attempts to build support in the Kaokoveld. They were taken to a police base at Opuwa and held there for several months. Napaheri NDERURA, Petrus MBAUMBA and Gustav HAO testified at the trial that after their arrest they had been made to lie on the ground and were severely beaten with sticks by police acting on King's orders. Their interrogators accused them of giving food and assistance to SWAPO guerrillas and questioned them about their movements. In some cases, the beatings lasted half a day. One of the detainees was beaten so seriously that he became delirious. All the detainees later received hospital treatment for their injuries.
Nderura, who had two fingers broken in the assaults, said that after continuous beating and electric shock torture he lost consciousness. He was left lying blindfolded on the grass outside the building where he had been interrogated. As he regained consciousness he heard someone screaming and recognised the voice of Kakuva. Later, a lifeless body was dumped on top of him. Lifting his blindfold he saw that the body was Kakuva's. When he did this, however, he was struck on the head with a rifle butt. Water was thrown over the detainees to revive them, but the action had no effect on Kakuva.
Nderura was later removed from the scene and he was held in a toilet for seven days with Mbaumba. Other detainees were held in a cramped outbuilding containing gas cylinders. They were later transferred to a tent where they were kept chained together by the arms and feet and held for a further three months. None of the detainees saw Kakuva after the events described by Nderura.
King's defence attorney argued that on the day that Kakuva was detained the security police captain had recruited him to gather intelligence on SWAPO activity in the region. He alleged that Kakuva had agreed to carry out these activities in return for payment in cattle. In supporting documentation, some of it drawn from the 1983 inquiry, King alleged that on 6 August, the day after Kakuva's detention, he dropped him off on a 'spying mission'. After this he claimed Kakuva was never seen again.
Further witnesses for the prosecution called King's testimony into question. Kakuva's wife, another relative, fellow detainees and a local water board official who regularly dealt with Kakuva, testified that he spoke only Herero and had little grasp of Afrikaans.
King, who speaks no Herero, claimed to have recruited Kakuva in an exchange that took place without the assistance of an interpreter. The prosecution also disputed whether the claimed spying mission could have taken place on 6 August, as King was still involved in the interrogation of other detainees on that day.
Kakuva's relatives also testified that he was a relatively wealthy farmer, with a stock of over 200 cattle. He had no reason to accept the bribe offered him by King.
Prior to the trial, an attempt was made to poison Nderura - the key prosecution witness. He was approached by two unidentified men on the pretext that they wanted to purchase goats from him. During the conversation they offered Nderura beer, which turned out to be poisoned. He was subsequently hospitalised. Local officials later established that the two men had been sent to Nderura by Sergeant Ruben Ipingo, based at the Opuwa police base. Ipingo served under King at the time of Kakuva's death and had helped detain the men. On 27 November, King was acquitted on all the charges against him. No further details were immediately available.
Immanuel Shifidi In September six members of the SADF were brought to trial on charges of murder, complicity to murder and offences under the Riotous Assemblies Act. They made an initial appearance in the Windhoek Magistrates' Court. The accused included four officers: two colonels, a lieutenant and a commandant. Colonel Willem Welgemoed is the commanding officer of 101 Battalion at Ondangwa in the north of the country. An earlier official inquiry into Shifidi's death found that 27 members of the battalion armed with knives, pangas and other weapons had been bussed to Windhoek to break up a SWAPO rally commemorating the International Year of Peace. They had attacked the crowd and Shifidi was assaulted. He died of serious stab wounds and cuts.
Wilhelm Haindongo Dirk Calitz, a sergeant in a COIN (Koevoet) unit based in the Ovambo bantustan appeared in the Windhoek Supreme Court in November charged with beating to death the headman of a village, Wilhelm HAINDONGO, in August 1986. The incident occurred during investigations into SWAPO activity in the area.
A pathologist, who carried out the post-mortem on Haindongo's body, said that he had sustained 'inter-cranial haemorrhage, multiple soft tissue injuries and lacerations to the scalp and right lower leg'.
Haindongo's son testified that Calitz had twice beaten his father with wooden poles. The assault followed an altercation about damage done to a fence by a Koevoet Casspir. Calitz ordered that Haindongo's body be wrapped in plastic and buried. Another member of the same Koevoet unit said that Calitz instructed his unit to bury grenades and camouflage clothing in the homestead to suggest that the inhabitants had links with guerrillas. They were also told that if questioned about the incident they should say that Haindongo had pulled a pistol and Calitz was forced to respond by hitting him.
Claims for compensation In September and October the widows of two men killed by units of the South West Africa Territory Force (SWATF) took legal action against the MPC Administration. Shinene Dumeni claimed damages of almost R100,000 for the wrongful killing of her husband Josef DUMENI who was shot in June this year. The authorities claimed he was killed during curfew when a military patrol was ambushed by guerrillas. Dumeni's brother, Bishop Kleopas Dumeni of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, however, claimed that he was killed in Angola.
The widow of Frans UAPOTA who was severely beaten and then shot by soldiers at Eembo in northern Namibia in November 1985, brought a claim for compensation against the 'cabinet' of the MPC Administration in September. Attorneys acting for Victoria Mweuhanga disputed the administration's claims that it has no jurisdiction over the SADF and SWATF. Complex legal argument centred on precisely which powers over SWATF had been transferred from the South African Cabinet to the MPC Administration when it was formed. The plaintiffs argued that the administration had acted incorrectly when, on the instructions of President Botha, it ordered a halt to the trial on murder charges of four soldiers in connection with the killing.
This was done in terms of a clause of the Defence Act which grants troops indemnity from prosecutions for actions committed 'in good faith' and for 'purposes of the prevention and suppression of terrorism in an operational area'.
In November, the Shifidi and Haindongo trials and the claims were still in progress. The SADF-accused were freed on bail. It is an unusual departure for the administration to bring members of the police and army to trial for committing atrocities. The vast majority of such actions have occurred without anyone being brought to account. At the same time King's acquittal showed that even when there is strong evidence against members of the 'security forces', the courts may not convict them.
