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In-Depth:
Justice for a Lawless World? Rights and reconciliation in a new era of international law
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 Download this in-depth report
Part I 6.36 MB
Part II 2.40 MB
- Professor Noam Chomsky
- ICC Chief Prosecutor Moreno Ocampo
- Samantha Power, Professor of Practice in Human Rights Policy
- Juan Mendez ,President of the International Center for Transitional Justice
- Justice Geoffrey Robertson Q.C.
- Dr Fanie du Toit, Programme Director for Educating for Reconciliation at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa
- Abdullah An-Na`im, Ph.D, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
- Augustin Nkusi, the Director of the Legal Support Unit, National Service of Gacaca Jurisdictions, Rwanda
- Benjamin Gumpert, counsel representing Justin Mugenzi, who is currently on trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda
- Hanny Megally, Director, Middle East and North Africa Program, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
- Paul van Zyl, Country Programme Director at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ)
- Johnston Busingye, Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice in Rwanda
- Dennis McNamara (Special Adviser on Internal Displacement to the UN’s Emergency Relief Co-ordinator and Director of the OCHA Inter-agency Internal Displacement Division) on the rule of law
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NAMIBIA: Reopening old wounds
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A close-up of a mass grave of alleged Plan fighters killed around April 1989. The body of another woman, possibly even a teenager, can be identified amongst those of the men. The governor of the Onhangwa Region, Usko Nghaamwa, told reporters that some people who had served in the former SADF and Koevot police counter-insurgency unit responded to President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s call for information on mass burials during the liberation struggle.
Credit: IDAF – National Archives of Namibia |
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In the sleepy town of Eenhana in northern Namibia, the discovery of a mass grave dating back to the country’s struggle for independence from South Africa, has reopened old wounds that some say have had little opportunity to heal in the 15 years since the conflict ended.
The grave was accidentally uncovered in November 2005? by a construction crew laying pipes for a new sewage processing plant. Word spread quickly and townspeople flocked to the site to view the bones.
Many people from this area, a few kilometres south of the Angolan border, still have unanswered questions about the fate of family members who disappeared during the war. Some of the missing relatives had belonged to the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the armed wing of SWAPO, which now forms Namibia’s ruling party. Others had served in the former South African Defense Forces (SADF) while others were civilians caught up in the conflict.
But the only clues as to the identity of these remains were their location close to a former South African military base and a few scraps of clothing. Some of the clothes were clearly PLAN fighter uniforms, but several townspeople say they also saw civilian clothes in the grave before it was exhumed and its contents transported to the National Forensic Science Institute in Windhoek.
“You didn’t know what happened on the military base. You didn’t go there because it was dangerous,” recalls Elias Mungonena who grew up in a nearby village and who now works for the regional office of Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights (NSHR). “You only heard gunfire and sometimes saw dogs with human body parts, but you didn’t know where they came from.”
Victoria Silas, who lives on the same plot of land a short distance from the grave site that her family occupied during the war years, says the discovery has stirred up old resentments and animosities that belie the government’s policy of reconciliation.
“People started making accusations, calling each other enemies of the government,” she told IRIN. “It caused some people to feel bad.”
One target for such accusations was Sackaria Hamukoto, who worked as a translator for the SADF during the war years. People here have not forgotten the abuses they suffered at the hands of the SADF and in particular the “Koevoet,” a paramilitary unit that gained a reputation for torturing civilians to extract information about SWAPO’s movements. Humukoto says people blamed him for the bodies in the grave and that he has received threats.
“It was better before they found the bones,” he sighs.
During a visit to the site, President Hifikepunye Pohamba called for anyone with information about other graves to come forward. Several villagers did and 17 other sites have since been located, but there are believed to be many more dotting the entire border region.
According to Phil ya Nangoloh, executive director of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), to call the graves a “discovery” is misleading.
“Everybody knew of the existence of these mass graves,” he says. “When the president called on Namibians who might have information, people rushed to our offices country-wide and said they were willing to give evidence, provided there’s a law put in place to ensure they won’t be prosecuted and persecuted thereafter.”
The President of Namibia’s largest opposition party, the Congress of Democrats, Ben Ulenga agrees that the existence of the graves was public knowledge.
“The whole incident showed us how we haven’t properly dealt with our past,” he says. “Even if you don’t want to open up old wounds, they will open themselves up.”
South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission (TRC) revealed numerous details about killings and torture perpetrated by the SADF, but following independence and a landslide election victory in 1990, SWAPO signed an agreement with the South African government not to take legal action against individuals for atrocities they committed during the war.
[ENDS]
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