Soldiers detained

The Namibian authorities have detained 22 soldiers of the Namibian Defense Force (NDF) who have allegedly refused to serve in Angola, a human rights official told IRIN on Tuesday. Phil ya Nangoloh, director of the National Society for Human Rights, said they were being held at the Grootfontein military base in northern Namibia and could face disciplinary hearings. He said soldiers, all members of the Walvis Bay-based Fifth Battalion of the NDF, had been deployed at Omega, some 270 km east of border town of Rundu, at the time of their arrest early last week. “This is an undeclared war,” he said. “They were going to be deployed against the UNITA rebel movement inside Angola. Any soldiers can object to fight in an undeclared war.” He said the society had learned of their arrests “from reliable NDF sources” at the border town of Katima Mulilo and in the capital, Windhoek. An army spokesman contacted by IRIN confirmed that a legal case was pending, but he declined to give further details citing “issues of national security”. The Namibian army is made up entirely of volunteer professional soldiers. In a similar case last year, a soldier who refused to join the country’s military intervention in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was dismissed from the armed forces. Article 21 of the Namibian constitution, Ya Nangoloh said, enshrined the right to freedom of thought and conscience. “No steps should therefore be taken against such people because it looks as if they are conscientious objectors. These soldiers feel that the war in Angola is not of their own making, and our constitution does not provide for hostile intervention in foreign countries,” he said. He added the arrests were also linked to the fact that unlike men deployed in DRC, these soldiers would not receive compensation in case of injuries or death in Angola. Last week, Namibian President Sam Nujoma, citing repeated incursions by UNITA rebels into northern Namibia, said NDF soldiers would conduct opeations against UNITA in Angola.