S.A. police tortured Namibians — report

Press, 17 February 1978, Page 5

S.A. police tortured Namibians — report

NZPA-Reuter Geneva A United Nations group has accused 13 South African security policemen of torturing Namibians (South West Africans). It was the first time the six-man group, reporting to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, in session in Geneva had put together a specific list of security officers in allegations of serious rights violations or offences under an international convention describing apartheid as a crime against humanity. The group said it had an “abundance of allegations and testimony,” but there were few cases in which officers had been named.

The group of legal experts, set up in 1967, also contested a South African official statement last year that only 11 persons de-'

tallied under security laws had died in detention between January, 1976, and the end of February, 1977. The group reported it had “detailed evidence of 24 cases in which persons detained under the security laws have died, apparently while under interrogation by the security police, or as a result of such interrogation, between June, 1976, and September, 1977.” Its report added: “Thirteen political prisoners died in detention during 1976 alone.” It also listed 40 Africans sentenced to death in Rhodesia and “likely to have been executed” since 1976. Namibian nationalist sources in Lusaka, Zambia, said yesterday that negotiations in New York last week on the future of Namibia had failed to bridge a deep

gap between South Africa and the territory’s main liberation group. The dispute concerns the presence of South African troops in the former German colony if it begins a transition to elections and independence. Mr Sam Nujoma, president of the South West Africa People’s Organisation, proposed in New York last week that 1500 South African troops could remain in a transition period provided they were kept in a single camp at Karasburg, 80 km north of Namibia’s border with South Africa, according to the sources.

South Africa has already said it wants up to 4000 troops during a transition period in camps in the north of the territory to act as a buffer against Marxist Angola.