•  December 2000February 2001 Local News Headlines

Friday, February 23, 2001 - Web posted at 7:57:35 AM GMT

Armed robbery gets Henties fired up
MAGGI BARNARD AT HENTIES BAY

THE Henties Bay community is up in arms over the first armed robbery at the town in which a well-known hotel lost N$60 000.

The robbery, which left the manager of the De Duine Hotel hotel wounded, occurred in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Raymond Ludick (29) was locking the hotel's bar at 03h00 when he was approached by two men armed with a pistol - one was wearing a balaclava and the other sunglasses.

One held Ludick at gunpoint while the other demanded the keys of the safe.

Ludick tried to overwhelm the suspect with the pistol, but the robber fired a shot which went through Ludick's upper left chest and left arm causing a flesh wound.

The two robbers took the money from the safe and fled.

The robbers were still at large at the time of going to press.

The amount stolen was reported as N$30 000 to the Police.

But a spokesperson at the hotel's head office, Ilse de Wet of Namibia Country Lodges, said the amount could be as much as N$60 000.

"The money was already made up for the bank.

They took the whole bag with the bank book.

We are still sorting out exactly how much was taken," she said.

The Mayor of Henties Bay, Joan Dames, said she was extremely upset about the incident - the first armed robbery at the town as far as she could remember."

"It should not have happened," she said, adding she was grateful Ludick had not been fatally wounded.

"This is very tragic and will have an immense impact on tourism at the town," Dames said.

The town council has put a lot of effort into promoting the town as a tourist destination.

Just two days before the incident, Council, the business community and estate agents had decided to put a stop to crime at the town by creating a private crime prevention unit.

Dames said they were determined to make Henties Bay crime free."

"We are serious about this, and criminals should be warned that we will not tolerate them in this town, especially after this incident.

My aim is that we will get to a situation where criminals themselves say it is not worth operating in Henties Bay," Dames said.

Two former Swapo 'rebels' ponder legal actionCHRISPIN INAMBAO TWO of the alleged masterminds of a Swapo rebellion almost three decades ago have told rights activists they plan to institute "substantial" claims for damages against the Zambian and Tanzanian governments for unlawful detention.

Retired politician Andreas Shipanga and Phillemon Moongo, now a DTA parliamentarian, and hundreds of other Namibians were rounded up in Zambia 25 years ago for allegedly plotting against Swapo.

Late yesterday the National Society for Human Rights announced that in the light of Government's refusal to institute a national truth and reconciliation commission "some victims of human rights abuses are now considering legal action against the governments of Tanzania and Zambia"."

"At least two leaders of the so-called Shipanga rebellion, Phillemon Moongo and Andreas Shipanga, indicated their intention to sue the governments of Tanzania and Zambia for substantial damages suffered by them," the NSHR said in a statement."

"In the absence of a national truth and reconciliation commission in Namibia, we have no other alternative but litigate against those governments," the human rights monitor quoted Moongo as saying.

No comment was immediately available from the governments of Zambia and Tanzania over the planned litigation for financial compensation, nor could The Namibian reach Moongo and Shipanga for comment.

Approached for comment, a Government spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, Mocks Shivute, said the Namibian authorities were unaware of the planned civil suits."

"We did not receive any statement..... we are not even aware .... but that [the litigation] is their right," said Shivute.

Government has steadfastly maintained that Namibia does not need a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission, saying it would "open old wounds" and that it could result in witchhunts and bloodletting.

In one of the darker chapters in the annals of Swapo's liberation struggle, hundreds of people from the ranks of the Swapo Youth League and the party's military wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia, were detained at camps at Kamwala, Nampundwe and Mboroma camps in Zambia.

At the time Shipanga was a member of Swapo's Executive Committee, which was later renamed the politburo.

On July 18 1976 Shipanga and 10 others were transported in a military aircraft from Zambia to Tanzania for further imprisonment without trial.

On May 25 the then Tanzanian government under the late Julius Nyerere apparently caved in to international pressure and released the group.

Some of the detainees were allegedly executed and others tortured.

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