Two hundred thousand school students in northern Namibia boycotted classes in June and July to protest at police intimidation. They demanded the dismissal of Koevoet counter-insurgency police, the disarming of demobilised troops and an end to media bias against SWAPO.
Over 120 complaints of police intimidation had been received by the UN authorities in Namibia by the beginning of June. The UN Representative, Martti Ahtissari, wrote to the South African Administrator-General protesting at the activities of Koevoet police which had created 'an atmosphere of fear and intimidation among much of the population in the northern region'. He said that Koevoet personnel had shown themselves to be 'unfit for continued service in the police during the transition period'. He had grave doubt 'as to whether "conditions are established which will allow free and fair elections and an impartial electoral process" as required by ... the Settlement Proposal'. However, the Administrator-General refused to dismiss Koevoet personnel.
Koevoet, established ten years ago as a counter-insurgency force, spearheaded the war against SWAPO and was responsible for many atrocities. The UN Plan provides for it to be disbanded along with other South African military units in Namibia. However its members have been transferred to the regular police who are responsible for 'law and order' during the transition to independence.
Over half the 6,000 police in Namibia are now Koevoet and the Koevoet commander, Brigadier Hans Dreyer, is now in charge of all police operations in northern Namibia. Police continued to operate from Koevoet bases, patrolling in Casspir armoured vehicles with machine guns even though the UN Plan specifies that police should bear only 'light arms'.
Ex-members of demobilised military units have also been recruited into the police. Former members of 202 Battalion in the Kavango bantustan have been trained at Koevoet's Arendsnes base and deployed to 'protect' bantustan officials. Demobilised members of the South West Africa Territory Force (SWATF) have been kept on the SWATF payroll and many have retained their weapons. At the end of June the UN had records of 1,400 weapons which had not been handed in.
UN officials admitted in mid-June that they could not get access to some Koevoet bases and that only 188 UN police monitors were available in northern Namibia. However, the UN police forces were due to be doubled in July with the arrival of a further 500 police monitors ordered by the Security Council.
By mid-June UN records of incidents of assault and intimidation by Koevoet and other police had risen to over 200. Cases which were reported in the press included the following:
- Police did nothing to restrain a group of DTA supporters who attacked a school and ransacked a private home in Katima Mulilo in early June.
- On 9 June two Koevoet policemen, wearing DTA T-shirts and carrying firearms, threatened to assault people attending a SWAPO barbecue at Okalongo. Later a police van pulled up and police assaulted Freddie BUSH.
- Marcus SIWARONGO, a SWAPO supporter, was gunned down by police patrolling a road near Rundu on 19 June. He was shot at close range in the stomach.
- Koevoet members opened fire on a group of people returning to their homes in Uukwaluudhi on 27 June, seriously wounding Theophagus KAMATI.
- A bar owner and his wife were shot dead at Oshakati on 2 July. UN officials reported that a policeman was apparently responsible.
Other incidents were investigated by a commission appointed by the Administrator-General to investigate complaints of intimidation and electoral malpractice. Chaired by Windhoek advocate Bryan O'Linn (subsequently made an Acting Supreme Court judge), the commission can enforce fines or imprisonment of up to two years. It was criticised by the National Union of Namibian Workers on the grounds that it was appointed by the South African authorities. The union demanded that an independent international jurist be appointed to head it.
After repeated assaults on pupils, tens of thousands of students in northern Namibia began a boycott of schools on 18 May and forwarded a series of demands to the UN Representative. These included the removal of Koevoet, the disarming of demobilised troops, UN monitoring of all police patrols, and an end to bias by the South West Africa Broadcasting Corporation.
The Administrator-General issued an order requiring all students to re-register in the presence of their parents and sign a declaration that they would not take part in 'political activities' during school hours. Failing this, all the affected schools would be permanently closed. But parents and students rejected this and the boycott spread, with teachers joining in. By the first week of June 168,000 primary and secondary pupils in the Ovambo bantustan were boycotting, while another 34,000 pupils at schools in Kavango were out of classes as a result of a teachers' strike.
The boycott ended on 19 June after the authorities backed down from their insistence that pupils re-register under restrictive conditions. The Namibia National Students Organisation (NANSO), called on students to 'consolidate our gains and unity and prepare ourselves to participate actively in the election campaign and rally ourselves behind ... SWAPO'.
On 4 July, students and teachers in Ovambo and virtually all bantustan and administrative employees staged a three-day strike and boycott around the same demands as the first boycott. Ninety per cent of workers stayed away from work for the three days in an action co-ordinated by NANSO, the Namibian National Teachers Union and the Namibia Public Workers Union (NAPWU).
