Trouble fear at Namibia burial

Press, 10 April 1978, Page 8

Trouble fear at Namibia burial

NZPA-Reuter Okahandja, Namibia Tribal tensions ran high ! and police stood by for more i trouble yesterday as thousands of Hereto tribesmen ‘gathered to bury their murdered leader, Chief Clemens Kapuuo. Five black men were shot dead and 10 wounded on Saturday in tribal fighting as the funeral procession set out from Katutura, a black township outside the capital, Windhoek, 65km south of Okahandja. The police say shooting broke out after the cortege was stoned as it passed a hostel for Oyambo workers. The Oyambos are the biggest tribe in Namibia (South West Africa) and form the main support for the South West Africa Peonies Organisation nationalist movement. whose external wing is waging a guerrilla war against South African forces. Chief Kapuuo, tipped as a future President o, an independent Namibia, was

strongly anti-S.W.A.P.O. The; authorities have blamed; S.W.A;P.O. for his shodtmgl on March 27, although no-! ope has been arrested for: the murder. Details of the clash in Katutura are confused, but the police deny that they opened fire. One police spokesman said he thought the shots were fired by uniformed Herero guards escorting tribal chiefs on the procession.

But later, the police said this could not be confirmed. The funeral procession of packed cars, vans, and lorries, led bv a hearse bearing Chief Kapuuo’s body, stretched several kilometres and reached Okahandja without further incident on Saturday night. The chief was then laid out in state in the Herero hall for his people to pay their last respects. He was to be buried after vigil and funeral rituals. More than i 10.000 people were expected ’to attend.