Caprivi conflict
| date | August 2, 1999 to a few days after August 2, 1999 |
|---|---|
| place |
Katima Mulilo , Namibia
|
| output | Central government victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| losses | |
| 14 fatalities approx. 130 arrests approx. 3000 refugees to Botswana |
|
The Caprivi conflict referred to armed clashes between the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), which in 1994 established military wing of the secessionist movement Caprivi Liberation Movement (CLM) and the Namibian government . The aim of the 1999 uprising was to achieve independence for the Caprivi Strip from Namibia . The political follow-up party that operates from exile is the United Democratic Party - Caprivi Freedom .
Origin of the conflict
With the Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty of 1890, the German Empire received what is today the area of the Caprivi region. The option to connect German South West Africa with German East Africa by land and water resulted in the fragmentation of the natural conditions. In this narrow strip of land people of different origins, languages, cultures and identities from the neighboring areas of today's Zambia and Botswana live . The subordination of the population manifested itself above all in the grouping of the various population groups as Caprivians, who themselves survived colonialism.
Since Namibia's independence, the region has been characterized by a political opinion that has deviated from the state as a whole. The desire for more independence and the dominance of the Democratic Sports Hall Alliance (DTA) from the elections in November 1989 to the end of the 1990s were the clearest features.
In October 1998, a training camp for the CLM's military wing Caprivi Liberation Army was opened. In the course of combating separatist activities, the entire population of the Caprivi region was placed under the general suspicion of being potential rebels. As a result of the repression, around 2500 people fled to Botswana. By June 1999, several hundred refugees had returned to Caprivi. But the majority stayed in Botswana. A large number of DTA political leaders were also among the refugees. The leaders Boniface Bwimo Bebi Mamili VI. and the former SWAPO vice-president and later DTA leader Mishake Muyongo received political asylum in Denmark . In the regional council elections that took place in December 1998, SWAPO took over all six seats, as the DTA could no longer fill the vacant positions.
revolt
In the morning hours of August 2, 1999, CLA rebels attacked several strategic locations in the regional capital, Katima Mulilo . In addition to the police station and the Namibian radio station, the CLA also occupied the city's airport . Immediately after the uprising, the then President declared Sam Nujoma the state of emergency . A night curfew was imposed by the regional police commander.
Within a few days the uprising was put down by army and police units . 14 people including police officers, soldiers, rebels and civilians died in the riots.
High treason trial
Shortly after the unrest in August 1999, a public debate about the uprising and the associated treatment of the insurgents broke out. Demands for the death penalty for the rebels were loud because they were to be met with extreme severity. The nearly 130 people arrested were charged with high treason and 274 other offenses. It was not until a verdict in mid-2002 that the defendants were granted the right to legal assistance. The process, which according to the Namibian constitution must take place within a reasonable time, was opened in 2004.
Henning Melber speaks of collective amnesia in connection with the high treason trial ten years after the uprising , as the topic has almost completely disappeared from public awareness and neither local nor regional specialist literature is devoted to this topic. In September 2009, the Caprivi high treason trial was not over. Around 120 men were behind bars in 2009 without conviction. By 2009, more men died in custody than were killed in the fighting in 1999. Melber describes this as a judicial scandal that nobody takes any notice of.
Amnesty International (AI) reported numerous violations of international law in the treatment of prisoners . In addition to the accusation of torture, it is noted above all that all detainees are charged equally with high treason and murder, although according to AI some of the detainees are people who on the basis of their suspected sympathy with the political opposition, their ethnicity or their membership in organizations. AI then demanded the release of all political prisoners who were arrested on the basis of their convictions.
In 2010, the High Court ruled not to admit the testimony of a total of 26 defendants because these confessions were demonstrably made under torture. The detainees said they had been mistreated after the arrest, which they could prove by numerous scars.
On January 11, 2013, 43 out of 109 accused suspected Caprivi separatists who were still in court were acquitted in the Windhoek High Court. According to the court ruling, there is no evidence that the acquitted were morally, financially or logistically supported or that they were involved in the preparation and implementation of the revolt. For 65 defendants, the process continued because there was an initial suspicion that they participated in the armed uprising, or at least knew about its preparation and did not inform the authorities about it. Since 1999, 20 defendants had died in custody and one man, Rodwell Kasika Mukendwa, had been acquitted for lack of evidence. 16 of the 65 remaining defendants have boycotted the treason trial for years and are without a lawyer and do not take part in the trial. In the meantime, 30 of the alleged separatists had refused any legal assistance.
The high treason trial was concluded in September 2015, a good 16 years after the conflict. 30 defendants were found guilty of treason , murder and attempted murder. 35 of the remaining defendants were acquitted and for the most part still on 14 September 2015 the detention dismissed. The sentence was announced on December 8th: the convicts have to go to prison for an effective three to 18 years. Seven separatists have had to declare themselves in another trial since 2017.
Aftermath
The 855 still in neighboring Botswana living refugees of the conflict in 2019 the center of refugee status revoked. Their forced repatriation has been ordered. The first 84 returned to Namibia in mid-September 2019. When they returned, they emphasized that they wanted to continue to pursue independence struggles.
The separatists acquitted in the high treason trial have been fighting for compensation since mid-2018 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Henning Melber: Namibia's forgotten political prisoners. In: Allgemeine Zeitung . July 31, 2009, accessed December 9, 2009 .
- ↑ Amnesty International : NAMIBIA: Justice delayed is justice denied - The Caprivi treason trial. In: Report. August 3, 2003, accessed December 11, 2009 .
- ↑ Statements under torture cannot be used. In: Afrika Süd No. 1, 2010, p. 4.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from December 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento from January 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ 35 suspected separatists released. Allgemeine Zeitung, September 15, 2015 ( Memento from September 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Court punishes Caprivi uprising. Allgemeine Zeitung, December 9, 2015 ( Memento from December 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ High treason process continues to stagnate. Allgemeine Zeitung, June 13, 2017.
- ^ Morning news. Hitradio Namibia, September 19, 2019.
- ↑ Caprivi trial has consequences. Allgemeine Zeitung, August 31, 2018.