Bishop unimpressed by bomb blast commemoration

THE presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (Elcin), Shekutaamba Nambala, is not impressed by the commemoration of the First National Bank’s Oshakati branch bomb blast held at the northern town annually.

He said the event is open to accusations of being selective.

A bomb exploded in a crowded FNB branch at Oshakati on 19 February 1988, killing 28 people and injuring about 70 others.

“Our coming together here every year puts us at risk of being accused of commemorating the deaths of some, while ignoring the deaths of others who were killed in an equally barbaric manner. We need to come up with a way of remembering them all in case the Cassinga Day is not enough,” he said.

Nambala, who was invited to give the opening prayer at the commemorative event yesterday, compiled a list of incidents where innocent Namibians were either killed in cold blood, or died in bomb blasts and landmine explosions.

He noted that many innocent Namibians died or were tortured and their property destroyed, while others went missing without trace during the war of liberation.

“War is indiscriminate, and innocent people find themselves caught up in the crossfire,” he said, adding that the killings were not perpetrated by one side only as many people think.

He stressed the importance of the policy of national reconciliation, noting that it served to reconcile former foes.

“Namibia experienced a bitter war, but God Almighty was on our side, and we eventually prevailed,” the bishop said.

Former president Hifikepunye Pohamba, who was the keynote speaker, said he was one of the people who in the 1960s took the decision to take up arms against the colonisers.

“We did not start the war because we were war-mongers, but because that was the only option we had left,” he added.

He said the FNB bomb blast was politically motivated, an attack designed to sow the seeds of fear among the Namibian people at a time when the attainment of independence was on the horizon.

“It was clearly a barbaric attempt to derail Swapo’s efforts in gathering momentum towards independence,” he said.

Pohamba observed that Namibia’s independence was not given on a silver platter, but cost the lives of thousands.

Gruesome acts committed during the war cannot easily be forgotten or erased from memory, he said, but also emphasised the importance of the policy of national reconciliation.

“In order to build a strong nation, we must reconcile,” he continued.

Businessman Ben Zaaruka, who spoke on behalf of the survivors of the 1988 bomb blast, narrated how he was saved by a job-seeker.

He said he was entering the bank building when he was stopped by someone looking for a job – a delay that saved his life.

“He kept pleading with me, and I eventually agreed to employ him. But as soon as we parted ways and I was entering the bank, the bomb went off, and I found myself lying a few metres from the entrance,” he stated.

The two warring sides at the time, Swapo and the apartheid South African regime, traded accusations, each blaming the other for being responsible for the murderous attack.

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