THE mystery surrounding one of several mass graves found near the Angolan border recently has been partly solved – it could be traced to the 1972 shooting of five Namibian murder suspects by South African Police officers.
“We visited the site again last week and could get close enough this time to read some of the names still visible on a sign board put up there over 30 years ago. “An Anglican priest had also come forward who was in fact a witness to the burial and he gave us some names, which we compared to those on the sign board,” Ya Nangoloh added.This grave, which lies between Ohauwanga and Oshingadu villages, some 20 km east of Omundaungilo village, contains the remains of at least five Oshikwanyama-speaking men who were shot on Sunday, January 30 1972 near Epinga village, according to the NSHR.The words on the board read: “Marters [Martyrs] 30/01/1972” and it lists the names Tomas Mueshihange, BRN (born) 1949, Lucas Veikko BRN 1948, “Mathias […surname unreadable] BRN 1943”, and of Ngesea Sinana BRN 1941.This is followed by the sentence “Ovafila omwene mefiku laye” (Oshikwanyama for ‘They died for the Lord on His day’ – meaning Sunday).Tomas Mueshihange was the brother of Namibia’s first Defence Minister Peter Mueshihange.Anglican priest Elisa Shinana (72) of Epinga village said he was present at the shooting in 1972.He told the NSHR that this mass grave also contained the remains Benjamin Herman of Onaupanya village.Two of the five men originated from Ohainengena and Oshipala shOmoongo village in today ‘ Ohangwena Region and one man hailed from Onakadilu village in southern Angola.According to Shinana, three other men were wounded in the same incident and are still alive today.”They are Philipus Nghinamwaami, who was shot in the eye, Paulus ‘Kakambe’ Nghidinua, who was shot in the arm, and Valentin Shaimba Mwiixwika, who was shot in the leg.”They are still alive according to Shinana, Ya Nangoloh told reporters yesterday.Shinana and his wife Elisia further told the NSHR that the SA Police officers buried the men after relatives failed to collect the bodies.The police requested the late Anglican priest Stefanus Shimbonde of Epinga village to sanctify the mass grave.According other sources, the five men were part of a group of militant Oshikwanyama-speaking people, who had formed one of several gangs on bicycles.They were former contract labourers who were protesting against the contract labour system in Namibia.As a part of their protest, the group, which was led by the late politician Johannes Nanguutuwala, cut the border fence between Angola and Namibia in 1971 and early 1972, burned cattle posts and murdered several traditional leaders regarded as “gapartheid puppets” as well as ordinary people who were accused of witchcraft.A day before the Epinga shooting in 1972, that group apparently decapitated the wife of Ondobe Senior Headman Sam Kaulinge, who was seriously injured in the same incident.Sam Kaulinge was the brother of today’s Anglican bishop Appolus Kaulinge and their father was the well-respected Anglican priest Vilho Kaulinge.On January 30 1972, the group also hacked and seriously injured Senior Headmen Silas Isak and Timotheus Muunda at the Eenhana tribal office with pangas, sources told the NSHR.They appear to have been rounded up by police afterwards and then shot the same day without any trial.Yesterday, the NSHR showed a copy of a letter written on August 27 1972 by an Anglican priest at Tsumeb to his Archbishop about the killing of the five men.”The bodies were taken as ‘unidentified f to the Oshakati hospital mortuary and so (sic) entered in the hospital’s mortuary register with police signing in the place of relatives,” the letter said.The hospital only had space for 66 corpses and later told the police to remove the five corpses, saying: “We cannot keep all the people you are killing, this is a hospital, take them away,” according to the priest’s letter.The police then collected the corpses in a truck and drove back to the area where they were killed, stopping at various villages and asking people to identify them and bury them.However, they did not drive to Epinga village, where they had shot the men.”Instead of going back to the (Oshakati) hospital cemetery, they buried the decomposing bodies in the bush without marking the grave, one and a half miles past Ohauwanga,” the Tsumeb priest wrote in his letter.However, when NSHR staff arrived at the site last week for a second visit, they found the tracks of several large vehicles next to it and the grave cleared of all shrubs and bushes.”We wonder who did that, as these people must have known that there are no landmines [there],” Ya Nangoloh said yesterday.”When we found the grave in July this year, we could not go near, as we were told there could be landmines.””An Anglican priest had also come forward who was in fact a witness to the burial and he gave us some names, which we compared to those on the sign board,” Ya Nangoloh added.This grave, which lies between Ohauwanga and Oshingadu villages, some 20 km east of Omundaungilo village, contains the remains of at least five Oshikwanyama-speaking men who were shot on Sunday, January 30 1972 near Epinga village, according to the NSHR.The words on the board read: “Marters [Martyrs] 30/01/1972” and it lists the names Tomas Mueshihange, BRN (born) 1949, Lucas Veikko BRN 1948, “Mathias […surname unreadable] BRN 1943”, and of Ngesea Sinana BRN 1941.This is followed by the sentence “Ovafila omwene mefiku laye” (Oshikwanyama for ‘They died for the Lord on His day’ – meaning Sunday).Tomas Mueshihange was the brother of Namibia’s first Defence Minister Peter Mueshihange.Anglican priest Elisa Shinana (72) of Epinga village said he was present at the shooting in 1972.He told the NSHR that this mass grave also contained the remains Benjamin Herman of Onaupanya village.Two of the five men originated from Ohainengena and Oshipala shOmoongo village in today ‘ Ohangwena Region and one man hailed from Onakadilu village in southern Angola.According to Shinana, three other men were wounded in the same incident and are still alive today.”They are Philipus Nghinamwaami, who was shot in the eye, Paulus ‘Kakambe’ Nghidinua, who was shot in the arm, and Valentin Shaimba Mwiixwika, who was shot in the leg.”They are still alive according to Shinana, Ya Nangoloh told reporters yesterday.Shinana and his wife Elisia further told the NSHR that the SA Police officers buried the men after relatives failed to collect the bodies.The police requested the late Anglican priest Stefanus Shimbonde of Epinga village to sanctify the mass grave.According other sources, the five men were part of a group of militant Oshikwanyama-speaking people, who had formed one of several gangs on bicycles.They were former contract labourers who were protesting against the contract labour system in Namibia.As a part of their protest, the group, which was led by the late politician Johannes Nanguutuwala, cut the border fence between Angola and Namibia in 1971 and early 1972, burned cattle posts and murdered several traditional leaders regarded as “gapartheid puppets” as well as ordinary people who were accused of witchcraft.A day before the Epinga shooting in 1972, that group apparently decapitated the wife of Ondobe Senior Headman Sam Kaulinge, who was seriously injured in the same incident.Sam Kaulinge was the brother of today’s Anglican bishop Appolus Kaulinge and their father was the well-respected Anglican priest Vilho Kaulinge.On January 30 1972, the group also hacked and seriously injured Senior Headmen Silas Isak and Timotheus Muunda at the Eenhana tribal office with pangas, sources told the NSHR.They appear to have been rounded up by police afterwards and then shot the same day without any trial.Yesterday, the NSHR showed a copy of a letter written on August 27 1972 by an Anglican priest at Tsumeb to his Archbishop about the killing of the five men.”The bodies were taken as ‘unidentified f to the Oshakati hospital mortuary and so (sic) entered in the hospital’s mortuary register with police signing in the place of relatives,” the letter said.The hospital only had space for 66 corpses and later told the police to remove the five corpses, saying: “We cannot keep all the people you are killing, this is a hospital, take them away,” according to the priest’s letter.The police then collected the corpses in a truck and drove back to the area where they were killed, stopping at various villages and asking people to identify them and bury them.However, they did not drive to Epinga village, where they had shot the men. “Instead of going back to the (Oshakati) hospital cemetery, they buried the decomposing bodies in the bush without marking the grave, one and a half miles past Ohauwanga,” the Tsumeb priest wrote in his letter.However, when NSHR staff arrived at the site last week for a second visit, they found the tracks of several large vehicles next to it and the grave cleared of all shrubs and bushes.”We wonder who did that, as these people must have known that there are no landmines [there],” Ya Nangoloh said yesterday.”When we found the grave in July this year, we could not go near, as we were told there could be landmines.”
