The press release says an urgent application filed on March 5, 1984 in the Supreme Court of Namibia (South West Africa) charges that at least 100 men, women and children have been held illegally and incommunicado for six years by the South African Defence Forces (SAFD) in a military camp near Mariental, Namibia. The application for a writ of habeas corpus for the release of the detainees, was financed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and filed by correspondent attorneys at the Namibian law firm of Lorentz and Bone. The application names 23 applicants, including Bishop James Kauluma, Anglican Bishop of Namibia and President of the Council of Churches in Namibia; Bishop...
The press release says an urgent application filed on March 5, 1984 in the Supreme Court of Namibia (South West Africa) charges that at least 100 men, women and children have been held illegally and incommunicado for six years by the South African Defence Forces (SAFD) in a military camp near Mariental, Namibia. The application for a writ of habeas corpus for the release of the detainees, was financed by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and filed by correspondent attorneys at the Namibian law firm of Lorentz and Bone. The application names 23 applicants, including Bishop James Kauluma, Anglican Bishop of Namibia and President of the Council of Churches in Namibia; Bishop Kleopas Dumeni of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; Bishop Bonafatius Haushiku, Catholic Bishop of Namibia; and 20 named relatives and friends of the detainees. The action was brought against the South African Minister of Defence, General Magnus Malan; the Administrator-General of South West Africa (Namibia), Dr. Willie van Niekerk; the General Officer Commanding the South West Africa (Namibia) Territory Forces; and the commander of the Mariental military camp, Major G.J. Coetzee. The press release says in May 1978, South African bombers and paratroopers invaded Angola and attacked the Cassinga refugee settlement some 150 miles within the Angolan border. Over 600 Namibian refugees were killed, over half of whom were women and children, and some 120 refugees were forcibly abducted from Angola and taken to the Mariental camp by South African military forces. The press release includes quote by David Smuts and Gay J. McDougall, Director of the Lawyers' Committee Southern Africa Project. It discusses the International Committee of the Red Cross, Proclamation AG 9, Nikodemus Katofa, apartheid, the International Court of Justice, political prisoners, and the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
