FORMER Swapo detainees and human rights activists have formed a coalition to promote the interests of all victims of past conflicts and to establish the fate of those who disappeared.
The Coalition for Transitional Justice was officially launched last week Thursday.Its formation was spearheaded by Pauline Dempers of the organisation Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS), which was founded a few years after Independence in 1990 by survivors of the Lubango dungeons and the Swapo ‘spy drama’, when hundreds of party members were accused of being spies for the South African apartheid regime.They were allegedly tortured and detained in underground holes for many years. Many died there and the last group of about 300 detainees were only freed a few months before Independence. ‘We have officially established the Coalition and its charter was adopted during a one-day meeting with interested and affected people and groups,’ Dempers told The Namibian yesterday. ‘We felt this was necessary because the full truth of Namibia’s past remains hidden from public scrutiny. Acknowledgement of that truth and accountability have been rejected, and the redress of past wrongs are denied after all these years.’ Transitional justice refers to abuses of human rights during political transition in a country and in the case of Namibia this means resistance to colonialism and the South African apartheid government. Governments of new democratically established states or those who emerged from dictatorial or repressive regimes to democracy would have to deal with those people who suffered not only under the oppressors but also became casualties of ‘friendly fire’ from their own comrades or liberators.According to the charter, the Coalition wants to encourage and facilitate dialogue on Namibia’s past, establish the fate of those who disappeared during violent conflicts, address possible reparations, seek public and official apology to victims and to educate on Namibian (liberation) history.The new organisation will also consider having an official commission of inquiry or a truth and reconciliation commission established to investigate the sufferings of victims. Government has shot down several calls for such a commission, repeatedly stating that it adopted a policy of reconciliation at Independence.
