We�ll be tortured, killed if we go back � Namibian refugees
Mpho Mokwape | Wednesday January 6, 2016 10:34
On Monday, the Lobatse High Court granted the refugees temporary relief from deportation as well as the right to access a key report on which their repatriation was based. Botswana, Namibia and the UNHCR had agreed on a December 31 deadline for the end of refugee status for the Namibians, as the report allegedly indicated safe conditions for the refugees return.
The UNHCR helped some cross over, while the Namibian government promised cash grants, housing materials, food supplies for three months and other incentives for voluntary repatriation.
However, lead applicant in the legal suit, Felix Kakula said the Namibian government was “a habitual violator” of its obligations under the Refugee Convention, UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT).
He said most of the refugees who had returned home had either been killed or some jailed for trivial charges. The remaining 929 are part of the larger group that at one point numbered 3,000, who escaped from Namibia during secessionist violence in the Caprivi Strip in 1998. Many members of the group are children and grandchildren born at Dukwe.
In his founding affidavit, Kakula said most of the applicants were members of the banned United Democratic Party (UDP) and feared they would be killed, jailed indefinitely without trial or slapped with trumped up charges “as has happened before”.
“Namibian Human Rights has reported that a small village in Western Caprivi which is mostly inhabited by repatriates was surrounded by security forces,” he said. “All the people who were found there were driven and pushed into the deep Angolan bush and killed. The official reports from the Namibian government have been that they were killed but without any reasons.” Kakula said the refugees had long asked for the “Tripartite Commission Report for the Go-and-See-Come-Tell Mission” on which the deadline of December 31 was based.
He said their requests for the report had been to no avail indicating that all was not well in Namibia as alleged.
“It is clear that the Government of Botswana does not want to play ball by availing the report whilst on the other hand they insist on repatriation and/or deportation without disclosing what informs that decision,” he said. “That’s our biggest fear.”
Kakula added that the refugees enlisted the services of Botswana Council of Churches (BCC) and Ditshwanelo to assist us with obtaining a copy of the Tripartite Committee Report.
In a supporting affidavit, a Namibian human rights lawyer, Phil Ya Nangoloh, said Namibia had systematically failed to adopt effective legal, judicial, administrative and other measures to prevent, investigate, and punish “the widespread acts of torture occurring in the country”.
Nangoloh said Namibia specifically failed to incorporate UNCAT into its national penal law, putting the fate of refugees in danger, if repatriated.
The Attorney General, responding on behalf of government said both governments had assured the refugees that it was safe to return home.
“The decision to cease the applicants’ refugee status was taken after several observations and having given them time to repatriate voluntarily,” a representative of the Attorney General said. Lobatse High Court judge, Jennifer Dube, ruled in favour of the Namibians. She also ordered government to provide the applicants with the Tripartite Commission report.
Martin Dingake represented the applicants while Otlaadisa Kwape and Lemogang Moalosi represented government.