Tweya preaches forgivenessLeadership urged to start a dialogue The international inquiry into alleged war crimes hopes to shine a light on Swapo's dark history.
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The minister of information and communication technology, Tjekero Tweya, says United Nations Resolution 435, which paved the way for Namibia's independence, included an amnesty proclamation which meant that belligerents from both sides of the armed struggle “would not face prosecution or retribution”.
Tweya said this in reaction to the launch of the international inquiry into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Swapo leadership against other Namibian refugees in exile.
The Swapo leadership has acknowledged that the inquiry could open a can of worms and Tweya said in a statement issued on Friday that no one should be allowed to “disturb the equilibrium and pace and stability” enjoyed over the last 27 years.
Tweya said the former colonial regime had recruited Namibians to “undermine the just struggle for national liberation through political activities, espionage and subversion”, and acknowledged that “innocent people were inevitably caught in the crossfire”. “Our nation has been wounded, but the wounds have started to heal through the policy of national reconciliation,” Tweya said.
The international inquiry into the Swapo dungeon saga was officially launched last Friday.
“People have been kept in the dark; even those that supported Swapo have been kept in the dark. What has happened in exile must be known, it must be brought to the surface and serve as a lesson for Namibia and the sub-continent,” said the chairperson of the Forum for the Future (FFF), Samson Ndeikwila, who was in a Tanzanian jail for 15 months in the 1960s, allegedly at the behest of the exiled Swapo leadership.
Ndeikwila said all the details of what had happened must become public knowledge.
The conveners of the inquiry include PLAN fighters of the 1960s who were among the first Namibians in exile, leaders of the general strike of 1971/2, members of the Swapo Youth League (SYL), as well as PLAN fighters of 1976 who accused the Swapo leadership of corruption, and the FFF.
At the centre are members of the joint committee of the Committee of Parents and the Truth and Justice Committee, now elderly women and men who lost their children or who were Swapo detainees.
The inquiry has been elevated to an international one with the involvement of the Southern African Indigenous Peoples Alliance (SAIPA) over atrocities committed against San people in northern Namibia and southern Angola.
“We have a right to know what happened when, how, where, why and who was responsible,” said SAIPA's chairperson, Gordon Cassim.
Former Swapo detainee Jackson Mwalundange said the reason why the dungeon saga happened was because of an alleged undertaking by Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State, to influence apartheid South Africa to relinquish power to the Swapo leadership as long as it “got rid” of the youth and other radical elements in its midst.
“One can come to a historical assumption that there was collaboration between the Swapo leadership and Pretoria,” said Mwalungange.
He said what was important now was for the Swapo leadership to come out and enter into dialogue with the nation on the dungeon issue.
“We expect a dialogue with Swapo; it must start talking to us if there is a way and maybe we can resolve the problem,” said Mwalungange.
The chairperson of the Committee of Parents, Erica Beukes, said demands since 1989 for an official account from Swapo and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) so far had been met with silence.
On 1 March 2016 the groups wrote to the five Western powers, the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), President Hage Geingob, and the United Nations (UN).
That was also met with silence.
Beukes said the only response came from attorney-general Sacky Shanghala, who on behalf of President Geingob in a letter on 28 September 2016 gave the assurance to the joint committee that the Namibian government would “act to resolve its concern, which included the completion of the inquiry”.
In November last year the UN Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) instructed a government delegation to “ensure that all allegations of acts of torture and ill-treatment are investigated, prosecuted and punished, including those committed during the liberation struggle and the state of emergency of August 1999”.
The inquiry is to investigate the whereabouts of thousands of people who disappeared while in exile, the torture and killing of exiles and the torture and detention of survivors, charges by the 1976 SYL against the Swapo leadership, massacres and prosecution of San communities in northern Namibia and southern Angola, and the “continuation of Lubango methods” against Caprivi treason accused.
Former detainees also suggested that the inquiry investigate possible collusion of state security organs in Cuba, Angola, Zambia and Tanzania.
From now until 10 December the joint committee and other groups will receive sworn statements and the commission will start to investigate the sworn statements and affidavits from 1 February 2018.
CATHERINE SASMAN