News and Information

Caprivi treason witness tells of Unita arms trade
November 3, 2005
Caprivi treason witness tells of Unita arms trade
* WERNER MENGES

THE tenth State witness to testify in the main Caprivi high treason trial transported the High Court in Windhoek back in time yesterday.

The court was taken right back to the days of 1998 when, the witness said, a bid to secede the Caprivi Region was being organised and people were being sent to Angola to buy arms from Unita for a planned separatist uprising.

The witness continued to testify on Tuesday and yesterday where he had stopped with his narrative seven months ago, when the trial and his testimony were suddenly interrupted by a fatal car accident in which a member of the prosecution team was killed and the other two were seriously injured.

Judge Elton Hoff has ordered that his identity may not be revealed by the media, because the witness told the court that he feared for his own and his family's safety if it was to be widely known that he had given testimony in the trial.

Like several of the prosecution witnesses who had preceded him, this witness was also warned at the start of his testimony that he might be asked to answer questions that could incriminate him on the charges being faced by the 120 men on trial.

However, if he is found to have answered all questions frankly and honestly, the court could shield him from being prosecuted on the same charges, he was also told.

The reason for this warning was again evident as the witness continued with his testimony this week: like several of the accused men in the dock who he said had been involved in the activities of a separatist organisation in the Caprivi Region, he, too, had participated in the organisation's endeavours, he readily admitted.

The witness previously told the court that he first heard of the idea that the Caprivi Region should secede and become an independent state during the 1989 election campaign.

The idea was "like a song in his mouth" to the then leader of the DTA, Mishake Muyongo, the witness has told the court.

Meetings at which this same suggestion resurfaced, took place in 1991, 1992, 1993, in 1995 at Muyongo's house in Windhoek, and in 1997, he claimed.

DTA facilities were used for most of those meetings, his testimony indicated.

Turning to 1998, the witness added this week that during that year, he attended a further nine meetings at which the topic of seceding the region was discussed and planned.

The first was, again, at the DTA office a Katima Mulilo.

Publicly propagated official party business was not on the agenda, it appears.

"There was no other business that was discussed there.

All that was discussed, was the secession of the Caprivi Region from Namibia," he said.

One of the topics discussed at that first meeting for the year was how money was to be raised to buy firearms, he related.

At that meeting, N$3 000 was raised, and this was given to John Samboma and Thaddeus Ndala - two of the men on trial before Judge Hoff - to go and buy arms from the Angolan rebel movement, Unita, he claimed.

Muyongo himself made the request that Samboma and Ndala had to go buy the arms from Unita, the witness said.

When the two men returned, they reported at another meeting that they had bought mortar launchers, hand grenades and AK47 rifles, but that they needed more money to get hold of more arms, the court was told.

Not only money, but also diesel fuel and food were traded with Unita in return for firearms during 1998, he related.

He told the court that in that time he accompanied Samboma and Ndala on a trip to a place next to the Kwando River, where they met "our cousins, the Unitas", and where they handed over drums of diesel and food to the Unita members in return for more weaponry.

They received rifles, mortar launchers, hand grenades and machine guns from the Unita soldiers, he said.

The diesel, he also related, had been bought at a Katima Mulilo filling station with the use of Government fuel orders which supporters of the secessionist cause who were employed in Government supplied to their movement, he said.

A Policeman, Ben Munzie, who is now one of the charged men in the dock, escorted them on that trip to do the trade with Unita, the witness also told the court.

Munzie's function was to alert the rest of their convoy if there were Police roadblocks on their way, he said.

After they got hold of weapons, a training camp for the secessionist movement was established in the Singalamwe area, which is near the Kwando River north of Kongola, the witness said.

He said he made some seven or eight trips to the camp, some with Samboma, to find out if the people in the camp were in need of anything, like food or water, and to deliver this to them.

One of the men that he saw bearing arms in that camp, is still a Police officer, he said: "As I'm speaking now, he's busy arresting people outside."

Their movement also had their supporters in places like the Mpacha military base near Katima Mulilo and in the town's Police station itself, he added.

"Even as I'm speaking now, he's still there," he said, referring to the Police officer.

The witness is to continue with his testimony today.

Deputy Prosecutor General Taswald July is still leading him through his evidence in chief, after which he will be facing cross-examination from the nine defence lawyers.
* WERNER MENGES

THE tenth State witness to testify in the main Caprivi high treason trial transported the High Court in Windhoek back in time yesterday.

The court was taken right back to the days of 1998 when, the witness said, a bid to secede the Caprivi Region was being organised and people were being sent to Angola to buy arms from Unita for a planned separatist uprising.

The witness continued to testify on Tuesday and yesterday where he had stopped with his narrative seven months ago, when the trial and his testimony were suddenly interrupted by a fatal car accident in which a member of the prosecution team was killed and the other two were seriously injured.

Judge Elton Hoff has ordered that his identity may not be revealed by the media, because the witness told the court that he feared for his own and his family's safety if it was to be widely known that he had given testimony in the trial.

Like several of the prosecution witnesses who had preceded him, this witness was also warned at the start of his testimony that he might be asked to answer questions that could incriminate him on the charges being faced by the 120 men on trial.

However, if he is found to have answered all questions frankly and honestly, the court could shield him from being prosecuted on the same charges, he was also told.

The reason for this warning was again evident as the witness continued with his testimony this week: like several of the accused men in the dock who he said had been involved in the activities of a separatist organisation in the Caprivi Region, he, too, had participated in the organisation's endeavours, he readily admitted.

The witness previously told the court that he first heard of the idea that the Caprivi Region should secede and become an independent state during the 1989 election campaign.

The idea was "like a song in his mouth" to the then leader of the DTA, Mishake Muyongo, the witness has told the court.

Meetings at which this same suggestion resurfaced, took place in 1991, 1992, 1993, in 1995 at Muyongo's house in Windhoek, and in 1997, he claimed.

DTA facilities were used for most of those meetings, his testimony indicated.

Turning to 1998, the witness added this week that during that year, he attended a further nine meetings at which the topic of seceding the region was discussed and planned.

The first was, again, at the DTA office a Katima Mulilo.

Publicly propagated official party business was not on the agenda, it appears.

"There was no other business that was discussed there.

All that was discussed, was the secession of the Caprivi Region from Namibia," he said.

One of the topics discussed at that first meeting for the year was how money was to be raised to buy firearms, he related.

At that meeting, N$3 000 was raised, and this was given to John Samboma and Thaddeus Ndala - two of the men on trial before Judge Hoff - to go and buy arms from the Angolan rebel movement, Unita, he claimed.

Muyongo himself made the request that Samboma and Ndala had to go buy the arms from Unita, the witness said.

When the two men returned, they reported at another meeting that they had bought mortar launchers, hand grenades and AK47 rifles, but that they needed more money to get hold of more arms, the court was told.

Not only money, but also diesel fuel and food were traded with Unita in return for firearms during 1998, he related.

He told the court that in that time he accompanied Samboma and Ndala on a trip to a place next to the Kwando River, where they met "our cousins, the Unitas", and where they handed over drums of diesel and food to the Unita members in return for more weaponry.

They received rifles, mortar launchers, hand grenades and machine guns from the Unita soldiers, he said.

The diesel, he also related, had been bought at a Katima Mulilo filling station with the use of Government fuel orders which supporters of the secessionist cause who were employed in Government supplied to their movement, he said.

A Policeman, Ben Munzie, who is now one of the charged men in the dock, escorted them on that trip to do the trade with Unita, the witness also told the court.

Munzie's function was to alert the rest of their convoy if there were Police roadblocks on their way, he said.

After they got hold of weapons, a training camp for the secessionist movement was established in the Singalamwe area, which is near the Kwando River north of Kongola, the witness said.

He said he made some seven or eight trips to the camp, some with Samboma, to find out if the people in the camp were in need of anything, like food or water, and to deliver this to them.

One of the men that he saw bearing arms in that camp, is still a Police officer, he said: "As I'm speaking now, he's busy arresting people outside."

Their movement also had their supporters in places like the Mpacha military base near Katima Mulilo and in the town's Police station itself, he added.

"Even as I'm speaking now, he's still there," he said, referring to the Police officer.

The witness is to continue with his testimony today.

Deputy Prosecutor General Taswald July is still leading him through his evidence in chief, after which he will be facing cross-examination from the nine defence lawyers.


Source: www.namibian.com.na
http://www.namibian.com.na/


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