S.W.A.P.O. ‘ready’ to call end to fighting

Press, 4 April 1989, Page 8

S.W.A.P.O. ‘ready’ to call end to fighting

NZPA-Reuter Luanda The Namibian nationalist group S.W.A.P.O. said yesterday it was ready to order its guerrillas to stop fighting if South African forces did the same. Battles broke out in northern Namibia between South West Africa People’s Organisation (5.W.A.P.0.) guerrillas and South African-led Namibian security forces on April 1, the launch date for a United Nations independence plan.

S.W.A.P.O.’s information secretary, Hidipo Hamutenya, said, “We are ready to send our commanders to the area and order a halt to the fighting provided the South Africans do the same.”

Reports reaching Namibia’s capital, Windhoek, from the remote border with Angola on Sunday suggested fierce fighting was continuing.

A police spokesman said at least 120 guerrillas and 20 Namibian police officers had been killed during what he described as a week-end invasion by 1000 rebels from Angola. 5.W.A.P.0., in a statement received in Lusaka, confirmed its guerrillas had been involved in a fight but said they had fired in self defence after being hunted down and attacked. South Africa has accused S.W.A.P.O. of breaking a ceasefire that took effect on Saturday when a U.N. force began its task of smoothing the territory’s path to independence, scheduled for next year. The South African Foreign Minister, Pik Botha, co-architect of the peace plan, has told the U.N. Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, that he must act against S.W.A.P.O. or have his

peacekeepers thrown out. 5.W.A.P.0., in its statement, said that its forces had instructions not to initiate any operations and that it was pledged to observe the ceasefire scrupulously. But South Africa’s administrator in Namibia, General Louis Pienaar, said some troops who had been confined to base ahead of their return home under the independence plan were being redeployed, with U.N. agreement, to help the police.

In New York, a senior S.W.A.P.O. representative, Theo-Ben Gurirab, said the organisation’s leadership was sceptical of claims of incursions as S.W.A.P.O. was in a strong position for independence elections and even hardliners had no motive to cause problems.