Namibian society seeks ICC charges on former president

Namibian society seeks ICC charges on former president

WINDHOEK, Namibia Caricatures mocking Sam Nujoma dot Phil ya Nangoloh’s office in Windhoek, but the man who has petitioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate the 78-year-old former Namibian president, and three others, for crimes against humanity says he does not hate the man now referred to as the “Founding Father”.

“I have no specific personal problems with Nujoma,” ya Nangoloh, the executive director of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), said this week. “But he should be more tolerant and conciliatory.

Nujoma, who retired as president in 2005 after three terms, led Namibia’s struggle for independence from South Africa and became the country’s first president in 1990 after a 27-year long guerrilla war.

The ICC has been asked to investigate the role of Nujoma in the disappearance of 4,200 people, most of whom were ruling South West African People’s Organisation (Swapo) ‘detainees’ in exile in Angola in the 1970s who had been accused of spying for apartheid South Africa, while more than 370 Plan fighters were killed during April 1989 and "many other fighters disappeared and remained unaccounted for to date".

It will investigate the four for "instigation, planning, supervision, abetting, aiding, defending and or perpetuating" the disappearances.

Other Swapo leaders are ex-defence minister Erkki Nghimtina, former chief of defence and now retired lieutenant-general Solomon "Jesus" Hawala, and Namibia Defence Forces Colonel Thomas Shuuya.

Nujoma, who is now the president of Swapo, was commander-in-chief of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), Swapo’s military wing, during the liberation struggle and also assumed the responsibility of commander-in-chief of the Namibia Defence Force after independence.

The court, which was created in 2002, is reportedly weighing the request submitted in November last year and may charge the four Namibians under its "continuous violation doctrine."

“Nujoma and others continuously refuse to explain what happened during the war and the violations are still fresh in the minds of the relatives of the missing people,” said ya Nangoloh.

Ya Nangoloh said the NSHR has obtained accounts from former Swapo combatants and members of Angola’s secret service of how the detainees were killed and their corpses dumped in a mountain crevasse, said to be 800 metres deep, which is near Lubango in Angola.

“There is no way one can see what is down the crevasse because of the fog and mist. Angolan security forces have told us that it is full of skeletons. It was used by the Portuguese as a dumping place for political criminals, the South Africa and by Swapo,” said ya Nangoloh.

ICC has also been asked to investigate events that occurred between 1994 and 1996, when Nujoma imposed a state of emergence in the Kavango region in northern Namibia, with security forces being ordered to "shoot on sight" anyone crossing or found near the Okavango River, which crosses the country into Botswana from Angola.

"Nujoma refused to explain and or investigate the fate and whereabouts of over 1,600 people who went missing during that period along the river. Some disappeared after being handed over to Angolan security forces," said ya Nangoloh.

The third case covers the aftermath of the August 1999 secessionist bid for the barren Caprivi Strip in north-eastern Namibia, when security forces indiscriminately rounded up and assaulted people suspected of supporting those that wanted to secede the area from the rest of the country, ya Nangoloh said.

He alleged that Nujoma told foreign diplomats not to meddle in the country’s affairs when they questioned gross human rights violations that were taking place in the area.

On October 25 last year, Swapo watered down a notion raised by the Congress of Democrats (CoD), Namibia’s main opposition political party, for an investigation on the Lubango disappearances.

The ruling party accused CoD of “wanting to turn back the clock” arguing that the country’s constitution “categorically” prohibited the “unearthing of any action done prior to the entry into force of the UN Security Council Resolution 435” of 1978.

“That is when Nujoma’s coffin was sealed,” said ya Nangoloh. “At independence, he also dismissed suggestions for a truth and reconciliation commission. This case would not be taking place is he (Nujoma) had agreed to the commission.”

He added, “Nujoma’s actions during the war show the hand of someone who was after destroying PLAN – someone who was working for both the CIA and South Africa.”

The ruling party however denies such allegations linking Nujoma to the CIA and South Africa. Last month it accused ya Nangoloh of forming a “coalition of reactionaries in feeble attempts to tarnish Nujoma’s image”.

“The Swapo central committee is not surprised that the same malicious propaganda is rearing its ugly head in an independent Namibia…the enemy is engaged in a massive fraudulent exercise to divide Swapo and its leadership,” said the political party in a statement released after the committee meeting in mid-July.