IRIN Focus on Kavango insecurity

The Angolan army (FAA) has reduced its troop presence in northern Namibia in an apparent surrender to local public pressure, political and security sources told IRIN. Since December, under invitation from the Namibian government, the FAA has used the Kavango region as a logistical base and springboard for an offensive against UNITA rebels in southern Angola. The FAA, however, has earned a reputation for indiscipline. Local complaints of drunkenness and stock thefts have not endeared the Angolan army to a population being terrorised by retaliatory attacks by UNITA. Withdrawal demand Last week, the Kavango Regional Council demanded that the FAA presence in the north be restricted to personnel involved in the supply operation based at Rundu airport. It called for the designation and control of border crossing points, the closure of businesses run by Angolan soldiers in Namibia, and a prohibition on the sale of alcohol to uniformed service men. Since last week, the previously highly visible FAA has turned low-key on the streets of northern towns. “(The FAA) weren’t supposed to roam around our streets and villages causing a lot of problems for our people,” Rundu Member of Parliament, Ambrosius Haingura, told IRIN. “Under the original agreement the central government only offered them logistical support … We called in the Angolans to tell them they have to restrict the movement of their forces.” On Wednesday, the speaker of the Angolan parliament Ventura de Azvedo faced tough questioning when he led a delegation of three Angolan parliamentarians, including a UNITA deputy, in a meet-the-community visit to Rundu. Local chiefs and elders led the demands for both improved discipline from the FAA, and more robust military action against the rebels along the common border. De Azvedo’s response to the assembled community leaders was a reminder that the common problem for both Angola and Namibia was the military wing of UNITA, rather than the FAA. The forlorn UNITA deputy, Beatriz Sololo, failed to satisfy a frustrated audience when she said UNITA parliamentarians had no control over the rebels in the bush loyal to UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. UNITA the problem Since the beginning of the year, UNITA attacks have intensified west and east of Rundu along the Kavango river border. Almost weekly there are reports of fresh night time killings, land mine incidents and abductions among Namibian villagers. In the hardest hit areas, people are forced to sleep in the bush. “Previously, UNITA just stole cattle, now they are killing people as well,” local chief Frans Haingura told IRIN. The indiscriminate laying of land mines has added to the fear. Two weeks ago, Rheinhold Muyambo stepped on an anti-personnel device while out looking for his cattle close to his farm. He became one of the 130 amputations performed at Rundu hospital since December on civilians, FAA soldiers and Namibian security personnel. Propped up in a bed in the men’s ward, his left leg missing below the knee, he said he was the sole breadwinner in a household that included seven children. The small ward included three other amputees, among them two Angolan soldiers. The regional commander of the Namibian Defence Force (NDF), Lieutenant-Colonel Bernard Nkawa, told IRIN that the only current solution to the land mine threat was caution. “The people in the area have been informed: Don’t move around before the security forces arrive so they can check and defuse them.” The Angolan government’s current offensive is believed to have cleared UNITA bases from along the Kavango river, but the rebels are still able to infiltrate in small groups from further north. Rather than the NDF, their targets are civilians and lootable property. “UNITA are coming from bases deep inside Angola. They just come, commit atrocities and go back,” Nkawa said. Security forces criticized But the lack of success at stemming these raids has led to local criticism of the performance of the Namibian security forces, who in turn blame collaborators inside Kavango. “Since 1975 UNITA has been on the border and have friends and relatives in Kavango. Up until now, some of them get assistance. That’s what makes it difficult for the security forces to root them out,” a senior police officer said. A common allegation in Rundu is that some of the bandits are also renegade former UNITA soldiers conscripted by FAA. “Our problem is that some of these people were UNITA who were integrated into FAA, and some Namibian criminals were also recruited here by the Angolans,” Haingura said. “At the present moment we don’t know who is doing what.” The Namibian authorities have responded to the anxiety generated by the attacks by rounding-up Angolan civilians in the border region without valid papers, and transporting them to the Osire refugee camp, 250 km from the capital Windhoek. In a region where national identities are closely interwoven due to shared ethnic affiliations, some of those who have been picked up have been settled in Kavango for several years, according to a list the Angolan consulate in Rundu showed IRIN. “Some of those who have been here for many years are among the people supporting UNITA,” Haingura claimed. “Those that don’t have documents and are involved in illegal activities, we don’t want them.”