DATE=8/6/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=NAMIBIA SECESSIONISTS
NUMBER=5-44022
BYLINE=DELIA ROBERTSON
DATELINE=JOHANNESBURG
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Namibian Government has imposed a state of
emergency in the eastern part of the Caprivi Strip.
That government action comes after at least fifteen
people were killed in an attack by members of the
Caprivi Liberation Front on a military base, police
station and other installations in the small town of
Katima Mulilo. The insurgents came from Zambia and
returned there after their brief incursion. From our
southern Africa Bureau, V-O-A's Delia Robertson takes
a closer look at the background to these events.
TEXT: The Caprivi is considered strategically
important because it is a narrow panhandle extending
out from Namibia's northern border contiguous with
four other countries -- Botswana in the south, Angola
and Zambia in the north and Zimbabwe in the east. It
is also important because some of the arid southern
African region's most important rivers, including the
Zambezi and the Okavango, run along or through it.
And as a popular destination for international
tourists, the Caprivi brings in hard currency to the
national coffers.
/// OPT /// Namibia's Caprivi Strip was created in
1890 by the so-called Anglo-German Agreement.
Originally part of Botswana -- then Bechuanaland --
the Caprivi was ceded by Britain to the then German
South West Africa in a complicated land exchange deal
designed to link German colonies from west to east
Africa.
As in many other instances when African borders were
drawn and redrawn by occupying powers, the people of
Caprivi found themselves citizens of another country
at the stroke of a pen. /// END OPT ///
Most of the residents of the eastern third of
Namibia's Caprivi Strip are Lozi - an ethnic group of
556-thousand people, most of whom live in western
Zambia. /// OPT /// 70-thousand live in northwest
Zimbabwe, 14-thousand in northern Botswana and 17-
thousand in the Caprivi. These areas made up their
ancestral Kingdom known as Barotseland. /// END OPT
///
The Lozi in eastern Caprivi do not identify with the
rest of the Namibian population and in 1994 formed the
Caprivi Liberation Front, which began campaigning for
a measure of autonomy to pursue closer ties with the
Lozi in western Zambia. Jakkie Potgieter of the
Pretoria's Institute for Strategic Studies says their
requests to the Namibian Government were not well
received.
///ACT POTGIETER///
When the Lozi's of eastern Caprivi asked for
greater autonomy from the Namibian Government,
so they can associate themselves more with their
brothers across the Zambezi river, it was denied
by the Namibian Government and they then vowed
to launch an armed struggle for their freedom.
///End ACT///
Last year, the Namibian Government said it had located
a military training camp run by the Caprivi Liberation
Front, and with the discovery 15 Front officials fled
to Botswana. They were joined by 2-thousand-500
followers, most of whom returned to Caprivi this year.
However, the officials, including Front leader,
Meshack Muyongo, have remained in exile -- Mr Muyongo
was granted political asylum in Denmark.
The move by the Lozi in Caprivi for greater autonomy
follows a long history of similar demands by the Lozi
in western Zambia. Mr Potgieter says many states in
Africa are becoming economically weaker and central
governments are increasingly less able to provide
security, food, and jobs to their citizens. He says
that as a result, citizens, such as the Lozi of
western Zambia and Namibia, revert back to systems
that have worked for them in the past.
///ACT POTGIETER///
In the last few years, people tend (to) return
to regional structures that for many centuries
supported them. It provided them with religion;
it provided them with connections with their
history, with their forefathers, which to the
Lozi is a very important part of their daily
lives. And it also was a very substantial
system of economic redistribution. So, never in
the history of the Lozi people, under the Lozi
Kings' rule were they poor, or without food, or
without being able to survive.
///END ACT///
Mr Potgieter says it is possible that in attacking the
small town of Katima Mulilo, the Caprivi Liberation
Front may also have wanted to test the reaction of
regional countries to autonomy demands by the greater
Lozi community, specifically those in western Zambia
and the Caprivi. He said the long term implications
of the attack may be greater for Zambia, than for
Namibia.
///ACT POTGIETER///
The situation has got far less potential to
destabilize Namibia, the whole of Namibia, then
it has got to destabilize Zambia. (That is)
because such a substantial part of Zambia forms
part of this Lozi population, or this Lozi
tribe. So that if the armed action is going to
spill over into Zambia, which there is no
indication up to now, it has got the potential
to destabilize Zambia much more than Namibia.
///END ACT///
But Mr Potgieter says that first and foremost the
attack was aimed at sending a strong message to the
Namibian Government.
///ACT POTGIETER///
I think they've reached a stage where they are
trying to see how far they can push it. The
fact that they have actually gone from a
negotiations point-of-view to an armed
insurrection, is an indication of how serious
they feel about the fact that attention should
be given to their wishes.
///END ACT///
Mr Potgieter says few governments consider granting
autonomy to regions within their countries. But he
says in this case, the importance of the Caprivi adds
greatly to the reluctance of the Namibia government.
He says, granting a measure of autonomy to the people
of Caprivi may be the best choice for Namibia.
///ACT POTGIETER///
Now I think the test is going to be if the
Namibian Government is willing to negotiate the
issue of the autonomy of that region or not.
And if that is not going to be the case, I'm
afraid that this might be one of the next areas
in this region where we are going to see a long
drawn out campaign.
///END ACT///
Northern Namibia and the Caprivi border on Angola,
where a civil war has been raging for three decades.
Mr Potgieter is among those observers who warn that an
armed insurrection in Caprivi has the potential to
escalate across the entire northern region of Namibia.
(Signed)
NEB/DAR/GE/kl
06-Aug-1999 13:28 PM EDT (06-Aug-1999 1728 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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