Lubango dungeons resonate in tactics of ‘Muyongo’s army’

ONE of the most painful chapters in Namibian history – Swapo’s detention of suspected dissidents in underground dungeons during the armed struggle for Namibia’s Independence – found an echo in the Caprivi high treason trial in the High Court at Grootfontein yesterday.

It might have been on a more limited scale than the rights violations that took place in Swapo’s places of detention at locations such as Lubango in Angola in the 1980s, but the essence of the dungeons of Lubango, where suspected dissidents were detained in holes in the ground, came to be repeated by an armed secessionist movement in the Caprivi Region, according to what the ninth prosecution witness in the Caprivi high treason trial told Judge Elton Hoff yesterday. The witness was Amedius Malenga Mwanalushi, born in 1965, educated up to Grade 2 at school, and the ninth person to testify for the prosecution.Mwanalushi told Judge Hoff that because he was not educated, he could not remember the dates of the events that he testified about.From what previous witnesses have testified, it could however be deduced that Mwanalushi once again took the court back to the last days of October 1998, and to what was happening at Lyiubu-Lyiubu in the Linyanti area of the Caprivi Region at that time.The prosecution alleges that an armed separatist organisation, the Caprivi Liberation Army, had established a military training camp at Lyiubu-Lyiubu at that time, and that an armed group was sent out to go after three people who had deserted from that camp.One of the escapees, Victor Falali, was shot dead, and this prompted the camp leaders to decide that the remaining people in the camp – a heavily armed group of 92 persons – had to flee to Botswana because they feared that the Namibian authorities were about to discover the camp.Mwanalushi testified that he had been at the Lyiubu-Lyiubu camp for about seven days, after other men who were already gathered at the base had fetched him, Falali and one Obbicious Mwikisa from their village in the Linyanti area.Upon their arrival at Lyiubu-Lyiubu, they were told that the purpose of the base was the secession of the Caprivi Region from Namibia.It was a military base of ‘Muyongo’s army’, Mwanalushi added, in the trial’s latest reference to the one-time Swapo Vice President and ex-DTA President, now living in exile in Denmark: alleged secessionist leader Mishake Muyongo.The new arrivals at Lyiubu-Lyiubu soon came to realise that there was a serious shortage of food, and after a few days without eating, he, Falali and Mwikisa discussed their situation and a plan to return to their village, Mwanalushi said.They were, however, overheard and were reported to the camp leaders, John Samboma, Thaddeus Muzamai, Postrick Mwinga and one Mushandikwe.Hauled before these leaders, they heard that they were to be killed because they were a bad influence on the others in the camp; only Mwinga disagreed with that suggestion, Mwanalushi said.THROWN INTO HOLE The upshot of this turn of events was that Mwanalushi, Falali and Mwikisa found themselves thrown into a deep hole in the ground, where they were kept for three days without food.They were guarded by two men, whom Mwanalushi named as Ivan Kakena and Michael Mayanga.The hole was covered with sticks.When they were taken out again after three days, Samboma asked them if they were still planning to return to their village.They did not tell him that they were, indeed, still bent on that idea, Mwanalushi said.He continued that after the trio had heard from other people at the camp that the leaders were planning to have them killed the next day, they decided to escape from the camp that evening.They managed to reach their homes in the Linyanti area the next morning.That evening Falali was to be killed.”I just heard dogs barking outside my house.I looked through the door, and then I saw five people.Those people were going straight to the house of the late Victor Falali,” Mwanalushi related.He explained that at that stage Falali was with him in his house.”They stood there for some time.They just made a U-turn.They came to my house,” he continued.”They were carrying guns.All of them had guns,” he said.The men ordered him to open the door.Both he and Falali were holding the door shut when the men outside started shooting, having warned them that they would be shot if they did not open it.”I found myself underneath the bed, and then I just heard my friend, Victor Falali, breathing for the last time,” Mwanalushi testified.He saw Falali had been shot in his side.”We did not have weapons.If we had weapons, we could defend ourselves,” he added.Mwanalushi said he went to Falali’s mother’s house that evening to tell her that her son had passed away.”And I told her that the people who killed him were Muyongo’s army,” he stated.He could recognise three of the five men, who had run off after the shooting, Mwanalushi said.They were all from the same village as he and Falali, and had also been in the camp at Lyiubu-Lyiubu.The three were Ivan Kakena, Richard Musupali and Michael Mayanga, Mwanalushi told the court.Mayanga had been one of the men who recruited him, Falali and Mwikisa to the training camp.Kakena and Musupali, and also Thaddeus Muzamai, later fled to Botswana where they applied for refugee status.They were among the 13 Namibians whose extradition from Botswana was finally refused by the Botswana Court of Appeal in late July last year.The witness was Amedius Malenga Mwanalushi, born in 1965, educated up to Grade 2 at school, and the ninth person to testify for the prosecution.Mwanalushi told Judge Hoff that because he was not educated, he could not remember the dates of the events that he testified about.From what previous witnesses have testified, it could however be deduced that Mwanalushi once again took the court back to the last days of October 1998, and to what was happening at Lyiubu-Lyiubu in the Linyanti area of the Caprivi Region at that time.The prosecution alleges that an armed separatist organisation, the Caprivi Liberation Army, had established a military training camp at Lyiubu-Lyiubu at that time, and that an armed group was sent out to go after three people who had deserted from that camp.One of the escapees, Victor Falali, was shot dead, and this prompted the camp leaders to decide that the remaining people in the camp – a heavily armed group of 92 persons – had to flee to Botswana because they feared that the Namibian authorities were about to discover the camp.Mwanalushi testified that he had been at the Lyiubu-Lyiubu camp for about seven days, after other men who were already gathered at the base had fetched him, Falali and one Obbicious Mwikisa from their village in the Linyanti area.Upon their arrival at Lyiubu-Lyiubu, they were told that the purpose of the base was the secession of the Caprivi Region from Namibia.It was a military base of ‘Muyongo’s army’, Mwanalushi added, in the trial’s latest reference to the one-time Swapo Vice President and ex-DTA President, now living in exile in Denmark: alleged secessionist leader Mishake Muyongo.The new arrivals at Lyiubu-Lyiubu soon came to realise that there was a serious shortage of food, and after a few days without eating, he, Falali and Mwikisa discussed their situation and a plan to return to their village, Mwanalushi said.They were, however, overheard and were reported to the camp leaders, John Samboma, Thaddeus Muzamai, Postrick Mwinga and one Mushandikwe.Hauled before these leaders, they heard that they were to be killed because they were a bad influence on the others in the camp; only Mwinga disagreed with that suggestion, Mwanalushi said.THROWN INTO HOLE The upshot of this turn of events was that Mwanalushi, Falali and Mwikisa found themselves thrown into a deep hole in the ground, where they were kept for three days without food.They were guarded by two men, whom Mwanalushi named as Ivan Kakena and Michael Mayanga.The hole was covered with sticks.When they were taken out again after three days, Samboma asked them if they were still planning to return to their village.They did not tell him that they wer
e, indeed, still bent on that idea, Mwanalushi said.He continued that after the trio had heard from other people at the camp that the leaders were planning to have them killed the next day, they decided to escape from the camp that evening.They managed to reach their homes in the Linyanti area the next morning.That evening Falali was to be killed.”I just heard dogs barking outside my house.I looked through the door, and then I saw five people.Those people were going straight to the house of the late Victor Falali,” Mwanalushi related.He explained that at that stage Falali was with him in his house.”They stood there for some time.They just made a U-turn.They came to my house,” he continued.”They were carrying guns.All of them had guns,” he said.The men ordered him to open the door.Both he and Falali were holding the door shut when the men outside started shooting, having warned them that they would be shot if they did not open it.”I found myself underneath the bed, and then I just heard my friend, Victor Falali, breathing for the last time,” Mwanalushi testified.He saw Falali had been shot in his side.”We did not have weapons.If we had weapons, we could defend ourselves,” he added.Mwanalushi said he went to Falali’s mother’s house that evening to tell her that her son had passed away.”And I told her that the people who killed him were Muyongo’s army,” he stated.He could recognise three of the five men, who had run off after the shooting, Mwanalushi said.They were all from the same village as he and Falali, and had also been in the camp at Lyiubu-Lyiubu.The three were Ivan Kakena, Richard Musupali and Michael Mayanga, Mwanalushi told the court.Mayanga had been one of the men who recruited him, Falali and Mwikisa to the training camp.Kakena and Musupali, and also Thaddeus Muzamai, later fled to Botswana where they applied for refugee status.They were among the 13 Namibians whose extradition from Botswana was finally refused by the Botswana Court of Appeal in late July last year.

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