Alleged abuses of police unit highlighted

Comments by Namibia's home affairs minister regarding alleged abuses by the paramilitary Police Special Field Force (SFF) had given further credence to calls that the unit be disbanded, a human rights group has claimed. Phil ya Nongoloh of the Namibian Society for Human Rights (NSHR) was responding to comments reportedly made by Home Affairs Minister Jerry Ekandjo in the National Assembly on Wednesday. Speaking during a debate on the country's crime situation, Ekandjo responded to comments that the SFF was neither sufficiently trained nor skilled to fulfil normal policing duties, The Namibian newspaper reported. Ekandjo explained that demobilised soldiers from all sides of Namibia's independence war had been drafted into the SFF in the late 1990's because if they had remained jobless they had the ability to "turn this country upside down". "That is the price we have to pay for peace," Ekandjo was quoted as saying. The SFF focused on guarding Namibia's borders and had played an important role in providing security after the attempt at secession in the northeastern Caprivi Region in 1999, Ekandjo added. Ya Nongoloh told IRIN the minister's comments were an implied admission that the SFF were unsuited to police work. "What the minister actually is saying is these are not people who are capable of performing police work, they are not police officers, they are people who were employed because the government is afraid of them. Not because they qualify to be police officers in the first place. "It confirms allegations made by citizens and human rights groups about the excesses of these people ... I don't know why it took him so long to admit to these facts," he said. The SFF had been involved in assault, torture "and even summary executions, especially along the northeastern border", Ya Nongoloh alleged. The unit had also been used to "break-up lawful protests and meetings, contrary to the country's constitution," he added. Rights groups have long insisted that the SFF, which numbered 10,000 members when it was first created, should be disbanded as a police unit and its members integrated into the Namibian Defence Force and trained as professional soldiers. "It [the SFF] is not a police force at all ... we have a high respect for the blue-uniformed police force and its inspector-general. They are people who qualify to be police officers and meet the requirements stipulated in the Police Act of 1990," Ya Nongoloh said. The legal status of the SFF was questionable as "none of the people recruited into the SFF have met the requirements stipulated by the Police Act, they are a fighting unit, a paramilitary force [trampling] on the rights of citizens".