Suspected UNITA detainees held

The Namibian government has lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding 82 people detained in Dorbabis, about 100 km southeast of the capital, Windhoek, saying they were self-confessed bandits of Angola’s rebel UNITA movement.

The Namibian news agency, NAMPA, said the Permanent Secretary of the Home Affairs Ministry, Niilo Taapopi, told journalists on Thursday that after investigations, the group was found to pose a security threat to Namibia. “During joint operations by the security forces in the southeast Kavango region, 82 UNITA soldiers and collaborators were apprehended and are now detained under the Immigration Control Act for being suspected illegal immigrants,” Taapopi said.

Taapopi, according to NAMPA, stressed that the detention of the suspects at Dorbabis - a notorious centre used by the former South African apartheid regime to detain political opponents - denied them the right to appear before a court of law within 48 hours. “The rule, therefore, that suspects cannot be detained for more than 48 hours without the consent of a magistrate, as stipulated in the Namibian constitution, does not apply in this case,” said Taapopi.

The suspects, said Taapopi, were transferred from Rundu, near the Angolan border in the Kavango region, to Dorbabis for further questioning. He added that, as the suspects posed a security threat, they would be removed from the country after the Security Commission had deliberated on their cases. “As to how long this would take depends on the Security Commission,” said Taapopi.

Media reports earlier said the 82 suspects were rounded up in the Kavango in a campaign started in June by Namibia’s security forces. The campaign was aimed at rooting out UNITA rebels - and their sympathisers - who had fled into Namibia following an increased onslaught against the rebel bases in the southern parts of the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, the Namibian Society for Human Rights (NSHR), “commended” the government for disclosing information on the 82 detainees. But it added in a statement that the authorities had not released the identities of those held or the circumstances of their arrest: “Moreover, NSHR has on several occasions pointed out that members of the Angolan and Namibian security forces who were arrested, if at all, for similar criminal activities in the northeastern border areas of the country were not brought to book. This omission seems to suggest that the charges brought against the 82 detainees are merely political.”