Angolans face terror charges

Five Angolans believed to belong to the war-torn country’s armed forces appeared in court at Rundu on Monday on charges relating to criminal and terrorist activities perpetrated on Namibian soil since last November, human rights sources told IRIN on Wednesday.

Zen Mnakapa of Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) said two of the five accused, among them a captain, claimed to be part of a group of 200 Angolan special forces sent to Nambia to commit atrocities as part of a campaign aimed at tightening UN sanctions against Jonas Savimbi’s rebel movement UNITA.

Mnakapa said the charges faced by the five Angolans include possession of suspected stolen property, illegal entry into Namibia, murder and attempted murder, robbery, malicious damage to property and possession of anti-personnel mines.

He added that the accused were captured by Namibian security forces in the Kavango and western Caprivi regions. Their case has been postponed to next month and are being held in custody.

Mnakapa said up to 340 Namibians in the Kavango and western Caprivi regions have fallen victim to acts of banditry carried out by armed groups since the arrival of Angolan forces last November. “These atrocities - which have left 55 people dead and 44 others injured mostly by anti-personnel mines - are selectively directed almost entirely at local residents,” Mnakapa told IRIN.

According to NSHR, similar acts of terror directed mainly at civilian, and at times, military, targets have also been reported along the Zambian border with Angola over the last six months. This prompted neighbouring Zambia’s defence minister, Chitalu Sampa to warn two weeks ago that his country would launch cross-border raids into Angola in pursuit of the perpetrators.