Caprivi not part of Namibia – Ya Nangoloh

THE former Caprivi Strip does not form part of the territory of Namibia, human rights advocate Phil ya Nangoloh argued from the witness stand in the main Caprivi high treason trial yesterday.

“Caprivi has never been part of the German colony of South West Africa and cannot now be [part of Namibia],” Ya Nangoloh said while giving testimony before Judge Elton Hoff in the High Court at Windhoek Central Prison.

“Namibia does not and cannot have sovereignty over the Caprivi,” Ya Nangoloh said, before giving lengthy testimony in support of his argument that the people of the area formerly referred to as the Eastern Caprivi Zipfel have a right to self-determination, which could include the right to secede and to resort to the use of force to achieve such an aim.

Ya Nangoloh was called to the witness stand by defence lawyer Ilse Agenbach, who is representing 15 of the 65 accused still on trial before Judge Hoff.

Agenbach first had to fight a lone battle against both the prosecution and the other defence lawyers involved in the trial last week to

persuade Judge Hoff that she should be allowed to present Ya Nangoloh’s testimony to the court and that the testimony would be relevant. Ya Nangoloh commenced his testimony after Judge Hoff yesterday ruled against the objections raised against him being called as a witness.

Most of Ya Nangoloh’s testimony was a repeat of a 55-page opinion on the legal status of the current Zambezi Region that he wrote in December last year and plans to submit to the United Nations’ Special Committee on Decolonisation.

Ya Nangoloh told the court that the colonial history of the Caprivi Strip was different from that of Namibia, with the Caprivi area having been a British colony while Namibia had been a German colony.

An 1890 treaty between Germany and Great Britain brought the Caprivi Strip into the picture not as a colony of Germany, but as a German sphere of influence, he claimed.

According to Ya Nangoloh the Caprivi Strip was never part of the German colony of South West Africa. When the former German South West Africa was entrusted to the Union of South Africa under a mandate from the League of Nations after World War I, the Caprivi Strip did not form part of that mandate, Ya Nangoloh argued.

His testimony is the complete opposite of testimony that one of the prosecution’s witnesses, lawyer Sakeus Akweenda, gave earlier in the trial.

Akweenda told the court that the boundaries of Namibia as they are known and internationally accepted result from international agreements that established the borders of the colonial territory of German South West Africa.

After being recalled to the witness stand to be cross-examined by Agenbach in November last year, Akweenda testified that the Caprivi Strip was created as part of German South West Africa through an agreement, concluded between Germany and Great Britain on 1 July 1890, that defined the boundaries between German South West Africa and neighbouring British territories.

The Eastern Caprivi Zipfel was clearly a part of the territory that constituted the German Protectorate of South West Africa, which later became a mandate territory under the care of South Africa, and there was no doubt or dispute about that, Akweenda said.

Ya Nangoloh doubts and disputes that, though.

He told the court that the Caprivi Strip and German South West Africa fell under two separate mandates. The colonial status of Caprivi under the British crown still exists today, he argued.

In Ya Nangoloh’s written opinion on the legal status of the Caprivi Strip, which became one of the exhibits before the court yesterday, he reached a conclusion that Namibia’s “occupation and its claims of sovereignty over Caprivi Strip are legally void”.

Ya Nangoloh states in the document: “Ipso facto Namibia is under obligation to immediately withdraw its foreign domination and alien subjugation of Caprivi Strip!”

He also argues that the surprise armed attacks that alleged separatists carried out against government-linked targets at Katima Mulilo on 2 August 1999 “should be seen as a legitimate expression of the universally recognized [right] to self-determination” of all colonised, oppressed, discriminated or marginalised peoples.

He adds that the Caprivi Strip separatists must be viewed as “a national liberation movement of freedom fighters waging a war of national liberation” against what they view as an “oppressive Namibian government”.

Ya Nangoloh is due to continue testifying today.

The 65 accused are facing a total of 278 charges, which include counts of high treason, sedition, murder and attempted murder, in connection with allegations that they had taken part in a conspiracy to secede the former Caprivi Region from Namibia through armed means between 1992 and 2002.

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