Rights group praises government on child soldiers and mercenaries

The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR)in Namibia has praised the Namibian government for distancing itself from the recruitment of Namibian mercenaries and child soldiers by the Angolan army. At a public rally at Rundu at the weekend, President Sam Nujoma strongly condemned Namibian citizens who have joined the Angolan Armed Forces. He said any Namibian citizen who joined a foreign army was committing a crime and that this would no longer be tolerated. The recruitments started in villages along the Namibian border with Angola last November when Nujoma granted Angola the right to use Namibian territory to launch attacks against UNITA rebels. The NSHR said in a statement on Wednesday: "President Sam Nujoma must also be commended for his admission, albeit tacit, that there are in fact Namibian mercenaries." "Nonetheless, the fact that such recruitment has taken place on Namibian soil does not exonerate the authorities in terms of national and international law," the NSHR added. In their statement the NSHR said that the Namibian government early thisyear had accused NSHR and the print media of, among other things, "vitriolic propaganda" on behalf of Angola's UNITA movement saying they were "behaving as if they belong to a fifth column". "As a gesture of honesty and for the sake of the truth we are now calling upon the government to formally retract and correct their recent statements as well as apologize for deliberately misleading both national and international public opinion. Some of us were even threatened with death and charges of high treason over these very same reports", said NSHR Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh said. Meanwhile, the Namibian ministry of defence has "blacklisted" a large number of Namibian youths recruited by Angolan army. Earlier this week Vincent Mwange, the chief liaison officer in the Ministry of Defence, said it had a list of Namibians recruited as soldiers by the FAA army. "All I can tell you is that there is a list of alleged Namibian mercenaries which was handed over to security forces in the (Kavango) region," said Mwange, who added that suspected mercenaries had been blacklisted and would never be recruited by the NDF. According to news reports, late last year and early in January FAA recruiters appeared to have lured a large number of Namibians into joining their army on promises of high monthly salaries. Reports said that the recruitments took place at villages in the Kavango.