Guerrillas tools children — S. A.

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 8

Guerrillas tools children — S. A.

NZPA Johannesburg S o utt h-West African People’s’ Organisation ?guef-. rillas kidnapped' 40 schoolchildren in northern. Namibia (South-West- Africa),” and killed a boy. and wounded another with a grenade': in a other . incident, -f; South African radio •• has reported. Twenty of the children later escaped. , In a third incident, guerrillas killed a tribal chief’s bodyguard and wounded a woman in a raid on the chief’s home, the radio said, It said, the incidents occurred in the'Ovambo region of the territory, but gave no dates.

To-date 25 civilians have lost their lives in guerrilla actions in northern Namibia this year, while 216 S. . .A.P.O. members and 26 South African troops ' have been killed, according to South African figures. In the Angolan capital, Luanda, the S.W.A.P.O. defence secretary,.. Peter Nanyemba, said guerrillas had killed 200 South African

soldiers since the beginning of March, and had downed:* helicopter and two. jjiiiitary planes;-He debris from. an’ IfnpaMWtt er-bomber; and the personal ■weapons-..qfythe. IdlleFpildt, a Captain: J'. £l.Henning.':' :;' ■'Mr Nanyemba said-ySbri.th had formed a terrorist - unit; composed of Namibian criminals,- Angolan hah* dits, South African guided elements,” arid Rhodesian .. : mercenaries, -‘y-yiho operated against Namibian civilians, using S.W.A.P.O. uniforms and order to discredit S.W.A;P.O. Hi said 20 of them had been captured and had. confessed to having committed crimes against .the civilian ;population. ' . . Alleging the use of ypsy* chological torture by -the South. African Army'in Namibia, the S.W.A.P;O;7. official urged world bodies: to demand, that South ", should open its detention cent res,, concentration camps, torture chambers, and prisons to the International Red Cross, for an inquiry* - -