Mystery over detained UNITA “sympathisers”

The Namibian government has cloaked in secrecy the identities and circumstances of about 100 people rounded up in the country’s northeastern Kavango region for allegedly being sympathisers of Angola’s UNITA rebel movement.

‘The Namibian’ reported on Monday that about 100 suspected UNITA sympathisers were rounded up in Kavango. According to the newspaper, the campaign started in June in a bid to flush out rebels who had fled to Namibia in the wake of the Angolan armed forces (FAA) onslaught against UNITA bases in the southern parts of the war-torn country.

The governor of the Kavango region, Sebastian Karupu, denied that the Namibian security forces had rounded up people in the region. “I am not aware of such an action,” Karupu told IRIN.

Namibia’s Society for Human Rights (NSHR), however, said it suspected that the alleged sympathisers might have been arrested on the Angolan side of the border in the Cuando Cubango province and brought into Namibia for detention. “The secrecy surrounding their detention and identities suggests that these people have not committed any criminal offence,” NSHR said in a statement received by IRIN.
NSHR said although it has been unable to confirm the identities of the detainees, a senior police source had confirmed that about 82 Angolans were being secretly held at Dorbabis, some 100 km southeast of the capital, Windhoek.

Said NSHR: “The only other possibility is that these people are prisoners of war. If this is the case, they are entitled to all the rights enumerated in the Geneva Conventions, including being visited by representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross.” It added that the government of President Sam Nujoma should reveal the circumstances under which these people are being held.