Lubango dungeons survivors say the death of former defence force chief Dumeni Solomon ‘Jesus’ Hawala has robbed Namibia of the chance to learn the truth about the torture and killing of freedom fighters in Angola.
Hawala died yesterday in northern Namibia. He was 89.
He was dubbed the ‘Butcher of Lubango’ because he allegedly ran Swapo detention camps for adversaries in the Angolan city during Namibia’s liberation struggle.
MIXED REACTION
His death has drawn mixed reaction from supporters and critics.
The Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs yesterday lauded Hawala’s “exceptional leadership”.
However, former Lubango dungeons survivor Mihe Gaomab I yesterday described Hawala’s death as a lost opportunity for Namibians in finding answers on the dungeons and the people who reportedly perished in the Swapo camps in southern Angola during the liberation struggle.
Hawala was a former Namibian lieutenant general and the deputy commander of the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) before independence.
He was born on 19 August 1935 at Efidilomulunga, near Ongwediva, in the Oshana region.
Hawala joined Swapo in 1962 before leaving for exile in 1964.
While in exile, he underwent military training at Kongwa in Tanzania (1965), North Korea (1968) and the Soviet Union (1981).
Upon independence in 1990, Hawala was appointed as army commander in the Namibian Defence Force (NDF).
In 2000 he replaced Dimo Hamaambo as head of the NDF. He retired in October 2006 and was replaced by Martin Shalli.
Gaomab yesterday said people such as Hawala and others were protected by the state and Swapo, because the risk of fingers pointing back to current Swapo leaders and those who were at the forefront of the struggle was high.
He said worse than the lost opportunities for the Namibians who were accused of being spies and rejected by their own families, was the dogmatic behaviour of Swapo’s leadership when they heard about the dungeons and took no action.
“Imagine people like Aaron Mushimba – the late son-in-law of [Sam] Nujoma who was a driver – was in the dungeons and Sam did nothing about it. The Biwas were there, the families of Boois, and the dogma made them turn a blind eye.
“They were giving these guys free reign . . . You cannot arrest about 2 000 people, some who were in the Swapo Central Committee and Politburo at the time. If there was political will, this thing could have been solved.
“Swapo messed up this thing in Angola, they could have involved the KGB from Russia to engage these people and find out if the accused person were true spies, or the MPLA or Fapla as Angola was the host country,” Gaomab said.
TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION
He said the least Swapo and the liberated new government could have done was to establish a truth and reconciliation commission like the African National Congress did in South Africa.
“Nelson Mandela dealt with the wounds of South Africans to bring about healing. But Namibia just adopted a policy of national reconciliation to sweep these things under the carpet,” he said.
Leaders such as former president Hage Geingob have been staunch in telling local survivors to move on from the atrocities.
In a meeting held with survivors in 2019, Geingob said any such [brutal] acts were part of the war and survivors have to move on in the name of national reconciliation.
NO ANSWERS
Eric Biwa, whose brother went missing in the late 70s, says the deaths of those who were mentioned to be leading figures is a dilemma for the families of those who left the country and never returned.
Biwa wants to know who will provide these families with answers on what happened to their loved ones.
“My brother was Richard Biwa, who was born in 1955 and left the country in 1976 from Tses to Botswana to join the struggle. My brother was with Stephanus Swartbooi and them.
“They were part of the same group. We don’t know how they got to Angola, but the reports we heard from others said they were in the dungeons.
“We are living with difficult questions. If everybody is dying, who will give us the answers we’re waiting for? What must we still do? The courts didn’t help, having support groups and pressure groups didn’t help. Somebody must tell us what the way forward is,” he says.
‘DYING WITH THE TRUTH’
National coordinator for Breaking the Wall of Silence (BWS) Pauline Dempers says it is unfortunate that people who were key during the struggle are dying “with the truth, and they are dying with proof”.
She says Swapo has a collective responsibility the party should account for.
BWS is a Namibian-based advocacy group saying thousands of people suffered and died in Lubango’s prison camps because of Swapo’s “perverted, tribal bigotry and paranoia that dirtied Namibia’s war of independence in the 1980s”.
It further estimates that hundreds of innocent cadres, all members of Swapo and its disbanded armed wing, are still unaccounted for.
BWS was formed by former Swapo detainees, their relatives and concerned Namibians some 36 years ago to seek truth and closure to rights abuses carried out by Swapo in exile, especially in Angola, the organisation says.
“I am a mother sitting with children, adult children, whose father also perished in the dungeons. And they are waiting and asking whether the day will come that they will hear something about their father.
But we have to keep pushing because one day the truth will triumph.
“Today, Swapo, because they have the power, they are succeeding in keeping quiet and not speaking about this matter, but Swapo will not always have the power, and what they hid for more than 36 years will come to light,” Dempers says.
‘ENDURING ANGER’
BWS chairperson Oiva Angula yesterday said while family, comrades and friends will honour the Hawala, for BWS and all the Lubango dungeons victims, his death “is a source of enduring anger as he was shielded by Swapo and its government to account for his morally repulsive acts in exile”.
“The now late Hawala, having been in charge of the Swapo omalambos (prison camps), gave hundreds of innocent Namibian freedom fighters the longest night of violence, torture, disappearances, and death.
“Today we are disappointed, because Hawala never spent a day to give account for his diabolic actions against fellow Namibians in exile,” he said.
Angula said Hawala’s “victims will not be able to heal fully until the living memory of the Swapo omalambos follows Hawala to the grave”.
Until the children of Swapo’s Lubango victims have died, the memory of Hawala’s actions will extend for many years, he said.
“Let’s be honest with ourselves.
Hawala’s death will neither make his victims forget Lubango and other places in Zambia, nor heal their festering wounds, but will combust BWS to invigorate its efforts for restorative justice,” he said.
Angula called on the government to facilitate a process that would allow victims of these dungeons to receive answers to yearning questions and find closure and appropriate remedy for the gross violations of their human rights.
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