Government says it has captured UNITA rebels

Namibia said it had captured up to 81 UNITA rebels in the north of the country it claimed were responsible for recent cross-border attacks that have killed seven civilians, including three French tourists. State television showed the alleged UNITA members being paraded in front of reporters in the northern town of Rundu. “They are going to handed over to the Angolan government. They are citizens of Angola, Angola will deal with then,” Defence Minister Erkki Ngimtina told a news conference in the capital Windhoek on Thursday. Namibian television quoted one of the prisoners as saying that he had been part of UNITA since 1985 and that UNITA members were going hungry and were “killing people to survive”. Meanwhile, Ngimtina has defended his government’s decision to allow Angolan government troops to launch attacks on UNITA from Namibia. “It was a blessing for us when the Angolan forces came here. UNITA no longer has the capacity to do what they want to do.” He said that violence along the border was “nothing new” and that an estimated 40 Namibians had been killed due to UNITA raids since independence in 1990.