Questions rise from ashes of mass graves

THE current public debate about the mass graves being investigated in northern Namibia raises many interesting questions.

Historians looking back at accounts of the battles of the liberation struggle that circulated at the time in the form of SADF press releases or Swapo publications (such as The Combatant) quickly realise that there are two totally conflicting versions of the war. Each side claimed to be killing large numbers of their enemy whilst suffering relatively few casualties themselves.Of course during any war the publications produced by both sides are not intended to produce an objective historical account, but are themselves weapons in a propaganda war.The questions raised by the discovery of the mass graves surely challenge us to seek new sources on the liberation struggle to produce a more comprehensive history of the war.Such a project could be done relatively easily and, I believe, would also make it possible to not only identify many of the Plan fighters buried in northern Namibia and southern Angola and thus give ‘closure’ to families.Such a project would have two simple dimensions.On the one hand one would need to access the military records of both sides in the conflict.Copies of the operational reports produced by SADF, SWATF and Koevoet units could be deposited in the National Archives of Namibia and, as these were not public documents, are likely to provide a detailed account of battles between South African forces and Plan fighters.Likewise the military records of Swapo could also be deposited to provide a detailed list of the officers in command of each unit and the names of those who served in each unit (good initial research on the command structures has been done by Oswin Namakalu).If the paperwork is not available from the military, then the information could still be reconstructed from people’s memories.Indeed memories are the second and, probably, most important source of information about the war.If one searches on the internet one finds many individual accounts by South African soldiers who served in Namibia and these accounts provide important insights into the history of the war.For example, one can quickly find a few references that relate specifically to the issue of mass graves.Firstly, one finds an explanation of a photograph of the old 52 Battalion HQ in Ondangwa in the early 1980s which identifies the different parts of the camp.In the top right hand corner is an area which is for captured prisoners-of-war.However, what happened to Plan fighters captured during the liberation struggle? One person’s answer to this question can be found in an extract from an interview with Sean Callaghan, a South African who was conscripted into the SADF and served a two-year tour of duty in northern Namibia in 1982-1983 as a medic.Mr Callaghan gave a statement to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which he remembered a period of time when he served with Koevoet.”I was seconded to the Koevoet team Zulu India led by Marius, I cannot remember his surname, and second in command John Deegan, with probably about 50 Black, many ex-Swapo combatants with us.I stayed at the base, Onamwandi, which was next door to the main Koevoet base which was a prisoner of war camp, for those prisoners which Koevoet members caught.The procedure at the camp was that those who were captured were brought back to solitary confinement until they were prepared to sign application forms to join the South African Police or the South West African Police which immediately meant that they weren’t prisoners of war anymore and therefore the Red Cross couldn’t touch them.There must have been a couple of hundred prisoners of war who stayed in that camp while I was there, and one of the big questions that still remains in my mind is what happened to those people when we pulled out of Namibia, because certainly we wouldn’t have declared them.My gut feeling is that when Koevoet broke the UN ceasefire in 1989 that that was a good time to assassinate all of those prisoners of war.”If it is discovered that the military records of both sides are still inaccessible, such oral history could prove vital to reconstructing events and working out the fate of those Namibians who did not return home to their families at independence.For example, another medic describes (on the internet) his time serving with the SADF in northern Namibia and refers to the burial of 24 Plan combatants in a mass grave just outside Etali base following a nearby battle on 1st April, 1989.The point is that such individual accounts are crucial if the history of the liberation struggle is to be accurately written, but, at present, we are very short of oral histories provided by Plan combatants.An oral history project with ex-Plan combatants would not only make an important contribution to Namibian history, but could provide much information about the names of those who died in particular engagements during the war and thus help with the identification of the nameless bodies lying in graves across the landscape of northern Namibia.* Dr Jeremy Silvester is a historianEach side claimed to be killing large numbers of their enemy whilst suffering relatively few casualties themselves.Of course during any war the publications produced by both sides are not intended to produce an objective historical account, but are themselves weapons in a propaganda war. The questions raised by the discovery of the mass graves surely challenge us to seek new sources on the liberation struggle to produce a more comprehensive history of the war.Such a project could be done relatively easily and, I believe, would also make it possible to not only identify many of the Plan fighters buried in northern Namibia and southern Angola and thus give ‘closure’ to families.Such a project would have two simple dimensions. On the one hand one would need to access the military records of both sides in the conflict.Copies of the operational reports produced by SADF, SWATF and Koevoet units could be deposited in the National Archives of Namibia and, as these were not public documents, are likely to provide a detailed account of battles between South African forces and Plan fighters.Likewise the military records of Swapo could also be deposited to provide a detailed list of the officers in command of each unit and the names of those who served in each unit (good initial research on the command structures has been done by Oswin Namakalu).If the paperwork is not available from the military, then the information could still be reconstructed from people’s memories. Indeed memories are the second and, probably, most important source of information about the war.If one searches on the internet one finds many individual accounts by South African soldiers who served in Namibia and these accounts provide important insights into the history of the war.For example, one can quickly find a few references that relate specifically to the issue of mass graves.Firstly, one finds an explanation of a photograph of the old 52 Battalion HQ in Ondangwa in the early 1980s which identifies the different parts of the camp.In the top right hand corner is an area which is for captured prisoners-of-war.However, what happened to Plan fighters captured during the liberation struggle? One person’s answer to this question can be found in an extract from an interview with Sean Callaghan, a South African who was conscripted into the SADF and served a two-year tour of duty in northern Namibia in 1982-1983 as a medic.Mr Callaghan gave a statement to the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission in which he remembered a period of time when he served with Koevoet.”I was seconded to the Koevoet team Zulu India led by Marius, I cannot remember his surname, and second in command John Deegan, with probably about 50 Black, many ex-Swapo combatants with us.I stayed at the base, Onamwandi, which was next door to the main Koevoet base which was a prisoner of war camp, for those prisoners which Koevoet members caught.The procedure at the camp was that those who were captured were brought back to solitary co
nfinement until they were prepared to sign application forms to join the South African Police or the South West African Police which immediately meant that they weren’t prisoners of war anymore and therefore the Red Cross couldn’t touch them.There must have been a couple of hundred prisoners of war who stayed in that camp while I was there, and one of the big questions that still remains in my mind is what happened to those people when we pulled out of Namibia, because certainly we wouldn’t have declared them.My gut feeling is that when Koevoet broke the UN ceasefire in 1989 that that was a good time to assassinate all of those prisoners of war.” If it is discovered that the military records of both sides are still inaccessible, such oral history could prove vital to reconstructing events and working out the fate of those Namibians who did not return home to their families at independence.For example, another medic describes (on the internet) his time serving with the SADF in northern Namibia and refers to the burial of 24 Plan combatants in a mass grave just outside Etali base following a nearby battle on 1st April, 1989.The point is that such individual accounts are crucial if the history of the liberation struggle is to be accurately written, but, at present, we are very short of oral histories provided by Plan combatants.An oral history project with ex-Plan combatants would not only make an important contribution to Namibian history, but could provide much information about the names of those who died in particular engagements during the war and thus help with the identification of the nameless bodies lying in graves across the landscape of northern Namibia.* Dr Jeremy Silvester is a historian