African Activist Archive

The mailing quotes Nagdalena Nghatanga, one of hundreds of Namibian refugees who have fled across the Namibian border to the Kassinga refugee camp. In the 18 years of South Africa's illegal occupation of Namibia, it has become a place of lawlessness and brutal oppression. The mailing says that, on May 4, 1978, South African troops launched a full-scale military attack against the Kassinga refugee camp 150 miles over the Angolan border. Mass graves dug later for the victims contained 562 bodies. Fifteen hundred people were wounded, and 200 to 300 prisoners were taken back to Namibia. On March 5, 1984, an application for the immediate release of the Kassinga survivors, signed by their relatives and by several church leaders, was filed in the Namibian Supreme Court; no decision has been reached on their fate. Under Namibia's Proclamation AG 9, any Namibian can be detained without charge or legal counsel for 30 days. The mailing requests donations so IDAF can help pay for the legal defense of the unjustly imprisoned and provide for their families and dependents--many of them relegated to the desert reservations of "Hereroland," "Damaraland" and other tribal areas. The mailing discusses the Red Cross, forced labor, and the South African Catholic Bishops Conference.

African Activist Archive

[As this letter was about to be mailed, the Administrator General of Namibia announced that 132 of the detainees at Mariental would be freed, ...]

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