Military

DATE=10/26/00

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=NAMIBIA / ANGOLA / DETAINEES

NUMBER=5-47243

BYLINE=CHALLISS MCDONOUGH

DATELINE=RUNDU, NAMIBIA

INTERNET=

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Namibian authorities are ignoring a High Court order to release four men detained during a crackdown on suspected sympathizers of Angola's rebel UNITA movement. Security forces along the Namibia-Angola border have detained scores of people without trial. There are credible reports that they are physically abusing some of the detainees. As V-O-A Southern Africa Correspondent Challiss McDonough reports, Namibian authorities want to deport many of the alleged UNITA supporters to Angola - even though some of them are actually Namibian citizens.

TEXT: Sixty-three-year-old Jose Domingos Sikunda has been living in Namibia since 1975. Originally from Angola, he is a naturalized Namibian citizen and runs a business here in the town of Rundu, not far from the Angolan border.

But Namibian authorities are threatening to send Mr. Sikunda back to Angola because he is a well-known, vocal supporter of the Angolan rebel movement, UNITA. His family fears he will be delivered into the hands of his political enemies in the Angolan government - a violation of international human rights standards. Namibian authorities have already deported at least 200 Angolans in recent months.

Mr. Sikunda's sons, Raphael and Luciano, told V-O-A their father was arrested on October 17th. Police and paramilitary units came to the house at night, searched it without a warrant and took Mr. Sikunda to a secretive detention camp just outside of town. His children have only been allowed two brief, heavily supervised visits with their father since then.

The Sikunda brothers say police arrested their father after he refused to denounce UNITA publicly. He has been a long-time political supporter of the Angolan rebel movement, but Raphael Sikunda denies that his father is dangerous, saying he has never taken up arms or committed any crime.

/// RAPHAEL SIKUNDA ACT ///

In this case, it seems to me to be a little bit stupid because my father has never physically been fighting with UNITA.

/// END ACT ///

On Tuesday, a Namibian High Court judge ordered the release of Mr. Sikunda, but so far, Namibian authorities have ignored the directive. They have also defied another court order instructing them to release three more prisoners. The Home Affairs ministry calls them - and scores of other alleged UNITA supporters - a threat to national security. Officials are holding them under the Namibian Immigration Act, which allows for long-term detention without trial and expulsion from the country.

But critics say many of the detained, including Mr. Sikunda, are Namibian citizens and cannot legally be deported. Besides, they say, membership in UNITA is still perfectly legal in Namibia.

/// OPT ///

Longtime UNITA supporter Emile Appolus was a founding member of the Namibian ruling party, SWAPO. He has since left the party, and is highly critical of the way the government is handling the situation along the Angolan border.

/// APPOLUS ACT ///

UNITA was never outlawed in this country. Nobody has ever said that you can't belong to UNITA here. As long as you don't carry arms or something, I don't see anything wrong in being a sympathizer of UNITA because this has been happening for the last 25 years, UNITA people have lived in this country. And they should outlaw them if they don't want them to stay here, not arrest them at night and take them across the river and kill them or something.

/// END ACT ///

Mr. Appolus says he doubts the government could actually outlaw UNITA under the Namibian constitution.

/// END OPT ///

Regardless, police and army units have raided villages all along the border, arresting scores of alleged UNITA supporters in the Kavango and Caprivi regions. Many of them are originally from Angola, but, like Mr. Sikunda, have lived here for 20 or more years. But native Namibians are being caught in the dragnet as well. Critics have called the crackdown a witch-hunt.

The Sikunda brothers say their father has high blood pressure and diabetes, but they are not sure whether he has been able to receive medication. They say to the best of their knowledge, their father has not been physically abused. But other detainees apparently have not been so lucky. There are widespread reports of prisoners being severely beaten by Namibian security forces, especially the paramilitary police units known as the Special Field Forces.

One former detainee told V-O-A he was arrested last month on suspicion of being a UNITA supporter, despite having no ties to the rebel group. Speaking through a translator, Josef Shindjukwe says his captors tied him up and put a woolen bag over his head as they tried to beat a confession out of him.

/// SHINDJUKWE ACT IN AFRIKAANS AND TRANSLATION ///

So basically the beating continued from nine until midnight. He says it was difficult to know, there were so many of them. And they were always beating him and accusing him of being UNITA, and of having guns, which he denies that he has.

/// END ACT ///

A month later, scars from the ordeal are still clearly visible on his arm, and he says he remains partially deaf in one ear. He was finally released after 10 days in custody, when a police officer he knew intervened in his case. It turns out he had been labeled as a UNITA sympathizer by men he had earlier identified to police as being responsible for robbing his workplace.

Human rights advocates say that is happening all too often in northern Namibia - people are using the crackdown on UNITA to settle personal scores. The United Nations refugee agency admits it has no access to the prisoners in the Rundu detention camp. The agency has not been able to check out conditions there, or even verify who is in custody. (Signed)

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