National reconciliation is an imminent forerunner and prerequisite of unity, peace, stability and democracy.  BWS believes that the following steps are essential for conflict resolution leading to effective national reconciliation:

1.     Truth and honesty about events/causes leading to the conflict

2.     Admission of wrong-doing and showing of remorse by perpetrators

3.     Apology

4.     Acceptance of apology on the part of the victim

5.     Analysis and assessment of the impact these human rights abuses have on victims/survivors and families of the missing persons for effective intervention and remedy

BWS wants to see ruling party SWAPO begin these steps in regards to the ex-detainees from the liberation struggle.  (If you haven’t read my previous post on the historical background of BWS’s founding, you might want to now).  As of this point, SWAPO leadership has never admitted wrong-doing in its abuse and torture of the detainees, let alone the fact that many of the victims were entirely innocent.  However, it is getting closer.  Just yesterday, this story appeared on the front page of the Namibian, announcing that the Ministry of Veterans’ Affairs will consider ex-detainees from SWAPO’s spy crisis to potentially be eligible for war veteran status.  The Minister, Ngarikutuke Tjiriange, made a garbled statement about the detainees, saying that SWAPO did have suspected spies, and “In the process, you may have arrested people who you suspected, but who may not have been as active (as initially thought).  So the answer is easy.  If someone was not convicted of any offence, but was caught in the crossfire, they will be associated with the struggle.  They will be treated as a veteran.”

To encourage SWAPO to begin the steps toward true reconciliation, BWS lobbies SWAPO party officials, Parliamentarians and other politicians; conducts a public relations campaign through the national media; and works to get the word out internationally through partnerships with international organizations.  BWS has also conducted a painstaking campaign to record the testimonies of all ex-detainees or their families, and to reach out to Namibians in all regions to ensure they know about the detentions.

A few weeks ago I interviewed Samson Ndeikwila, who was one of the founders of BWS and also its first chairperson.  I asked him what he thought were the most significant achievements of the organization, and also its importance to Namibia.  He spoke eloquently about the need for national reconciliation and BWS’s part in that:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzppm9fdXI4

Later I asked him whether he thought national reconciliation would actually happen, whether SWAPO would ever admit what it had done, and he said, “It will be resolved but I don’t know when.  I hope in my lifetime.”  I hope so too.

A little historical background will be helpful in understanding BWS’s roots and Pauline’s experience. During Namibia’s struggle for independence from South Africa, which was ongoing from the 1960s through the 1980s until independence was finally achieved in 1990, many Namibians left the country in order to train and fight in the struggle.  The South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) was the leading voice of the liberation movement, and it was training soldiers and leaders in camps in Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.  Starting in the 60s, tension developed between the older leadership of SWAPO and young people coming from Namibia.  In the 80s, the SWAPO leadership became convinced that there were spies for the South African government among the new arrivals.  They began jailing and torturing suspects in underground prisons.  No one knows how many people were imprisoned overall, but the number is somewhere between 1000 and 2000.  Many did not return.

In 1989, as part of the UN agreement that ended hostilities between South Africa and Namibia and granted independence to the new nation, surviving prisoners of war were repatriated to their respective countries.  Just 169 men, women and children were repatriated to Namibia from dungeons in Lubango, Angola.  The whereabouts of the rest of the detainees remains unknown.  Breaking the Wall of Silence was formed in 1996 by the survivors of the spy crisis to advocate for the human rights of the ex-detainees and their families.  SWAPO was elected as the ruling party after independence and remains the ruling party after 19 years.

The rest is best said in Pauline’s own words:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te430LAKiLE

For more information on the mission and programs of BWS, please go to the new website at: http://sites.google.com/site/breakingthewallofsilence/Home