Lutherans must apologise
Human rights organisations say the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) was well aware of human rights abuses committed in exile.
The human rights organisations Forum for the Future (FFF) and NamRights want the Assembly of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) meeting in Windhoek this week, to publicly apologise for its alleged complicity and continued silence about Swapo's human rights violations in exile before independence.
The organisations further want the Assembly of the LWF to facilitate and provide funding for a national truth and reconciliation process in Namibia. They say such a truth and reconciliation process would give survivors of Swapo's dungeons, individual Swapo perpetrators “overburdened with guilt”, as well as former SWATF and Koevoet soldiers, a platform to publicly share what they went through and to openly confess and ask for forgiveness for crimes committed.
Swapo is accused of widespread and systematic planned torture, enforced disappearance, summary executions, prolonged arbitrary detentions and other war crimes against fellow Namibians between 1966 and 1989.
NamRights and FFF say there is substantial documentary evidence demonstrating that the LWF was fully informed and aware that the Swapo leadership was involved in war crimes, especially in Angola and Zambia.
The late Reverend Siegfried Groth and late Reverend Salatiel Ailonga, as well as the Committee of Parents and the Parents Committee of Namibia, are said to have warned LWF's office in Geneva that a “dangerous situation” was unfolding in Swapo in exile and asked it to act before it was too late.
“Yet the LWF failed to act,” the human rights organisations say. “Had they acted, the violations would have stopped or would have occurred to a lesser extent.”
Former Swapo president Sam Nujoma reportedly visited the LWF in Geneva in 1987 to seek humanitarian assistance. There, he denied all allegations of the widespread violations in Swapo camps and claimed it was a smear campaign orchestrated by the apartheid South African regime.
Nujoma then invited the LWF to Angola on a fact-finding mission. The LWF dispatched six people – Dr Ishmael Noko, Reverend Ruth Blazer, Olle Eriksson, Hanne Sophie Greve, Reverend Helmut Jehle, and Bodil Solling – in December 1987 to visit a Swapo refugee settlement in Angola.
A report drawn up by the LWF delegation corroborated Nujoma's denial. This report was commended by the former secretary-general of the LWF, Dr Gunnar Stålsett.
NamRights and FFF say the LWF delegation allowed itself “to be taken for a ride” by the Swapo leadership while Swapo-held detainees were languishing in dungeons at Lubango in southern Angola.
“The fact is that President Nujoma had intentionally misinformed the LWF in Geneva about human rights abuses by Swapo in Angola. He also connived to invite and mislead the LWF delegation to Angola. This all had caused the delegation to compile a false report,” said FFF and NamRights.
They said that also led to Stålsett making outrageous statements about reports of human rights abuses by Groth, Ailonga, the Committee of Parents and the Parents' Committee of Namibia, which he had shrugged off as South African propaganda and in the process aggravated the plight of the Swapo detainees.
NamRights and FFF said after the LWF delegation's report, more than 130 Lubango detainees were killed or disappeared between 1987 and 1989, before the return of Namibians from exile.
The human rights organisations also expressed disappointment that the LWF Assembly booklet entitled 'The Lutheran Wold Federation and Namibia' had left out names of Lutherans who had suffered at different times in different ways at the hands of the Swapo leadership.
NamRights executive director Phil Ya Nangoloh said it was a moral issue for the LWF to respond to the appeal.
“They owe the Namibian people an apology; it is not too late. They must repent. But I will not forgive them until they ask for forgiveness. All people make mistakes but better people apologise,” said Ya Nangoloh.
Organisations such as the joint committee of the Committee of Parents and Truth and Justice Committee, as well as individuals, have signed the appeal to the LWF Assembly which will be hand-delivered and electronically sent to the Assembly.
The joint committee of relatives and former PLAN fighters said they had appealed to the LWF and the World Council of Churches (WCC) since 1 March last year to assist with the resolution of the matter but that they never received a response.
According to Erika Beukes of the joint committee, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) in December last year called for an inquiry into the alleged war crimes. The joint committee is embarking on the inquiry soon.
CATHERINE SASMAN
CATHERINE SASMAN
The organisations further want the Assembly of the LWF to facilitate and provide funding for a national truth and reconciliation process in Namibia. They say such a truth and reconciliation process would give survivors of Swapo's dungeons, individual Swapo perpetrators “overburdened with guilt”, as well as former SWATF and Koevoet soldiers, a platform to publicly share what they went through and to openly confess and ask for forgiveness for crimes committed.
Swapo is accused of widespread and systematic planned torture, enforced disappearance, summary executions, prolonged arbitrary detentions and other war crimes against fellow Namibians between 1966 and 1989.
NamRights and FFF say there is substantial documentary evidence demonstrating that the LWF was fully informed and aware that the Swapo leadership was involved in war crimes, especially in Angola and Zambia.
The late Reverend Siegfried Groth and late Reverend Salatiel Ailonga, as well as the Committee of Parents and the Parents Committee of Namibia, are said to have warned LWF's office in Geneva that a “dangerous situation” was unfolding in Swapo in exile and asked it to act before it was too late.
“Yet the LWF failed to act,” the human rights organisations say. “Had they acted, the violations would have stopped or would have occurred to a lesser extent.”
Former Swapo president Sam Nujoma reportedly visited the LWF in Geneva in 1987 to seek humanitarian assistance. There, he denied all allegations of the widespread violations in Swapo camps and claimed it was a smear campaign orchestrated by the apartheid South African regime.
Nujoma then invited the LWF to Angola on a fact-finding mission. The LWF dispatched six people – Dr Ishmael Noko, Reverend Ruth Blazer, Olle Eriksson, Hanne Sophie Greve, Reverend Helmut Jehle, and Bodil Solling – in December 1987 to visit a Swapo refugee settlement in Angola.
A report drawn up by the LWF delegation corroborated Nujoma's denial. This report was commended by the former secretary-general of the LWF, Dr Gunnar Stålsett.
NamRights and FFF say the LWF delegation allowed itself “to be taken for a ride” by the Swapo leadership while Swapo-held detainees were languishing in dungeons at Lubango in southern Angola.
“The fact is that President Nujoma had intentionally misinformed the LWF in Geneva about human rights abuses by Swapo in Angola. He also connived to invite and mislead the LWF delegation to Angola. This all had caused the delegation to compile a false report,” said FFF and NamRights.
They said that also led to Stålsett making outrageous statements about reports of human rights abuses by Groth, Ailonga, the Committee of Parents and the Parents' Committee of Namibia, which he had shrugged off as South African propaganda and in the process aggravated the plight of the Swapo detainees.
NamRights and FFF said after the LWF delegation's report, more than 130 Lubango detainees were killed or disappeared between 1987 and 1989, before the return of Namibians from exile.
The human rights organisations also expressed disappointment that the LWF Assembly booklet entitled 'The Lutheran Wold Federation and Namibia' had left out names of Lutherans who had suffered at different times in different ways at the hands of the Swapo leadership.
NamRights executive director Phil Ya Nangoloh said it was a moral issue for the LWF to respond to the appeal.
“They owe the Namibian people an apology; it is not too late. They must repent. But I will not forgive them until they ask for forgiveness. All people make mistakes but better people apologise,” said Ya Nangoloh.
Organisations such as the joint committee of the Committee of Parents and Truth and Justice Committee, as well as individuals, have signed the appeal to the LWF Assembly which will be hand-delivered and electronically sent to the Assembly.
The joint committee of relatives and former PLAN fighters said they had appealed to the LWF and the World Council of Churches (WCC) since 1 March last year to assist with the resolution of the matter but that they never received a response.
According to Erika Beukes of the joint committee, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (UNCAT) in December last year called for an inquiry into the alleged war crimes. The joint committee is embarking on the inquiry soon.
CATHERINE SASMAN
CATHERINE SASMAN
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