By Marx Itamalo|
SEVERAL ex-members of Swapo party’s former military wing PLAN want the party and government to honour its vow to locate graves of ex-PLAN combatants who died in combat during the liberation struggle and to give them decent burials.
Several ex-PLAN combatants say it is a disgrace that the remains of many departed ex-PLAN fighters are in graves which are scattered unmarked in bushes across the country and that Swapo and government leaders are doing nothing about it.
“It is well after more than 30 years and the remains of some of our comrades are still in unmarked graves.
“What are leaders doing? They promised us they would start with the process long ago, but what we are seeing is that only the graves of a few freedom fighters were located and their remains exhumed and most of these were leaders.
“What about the ordinary soldiers?” an ex-PLAN combatant asked.
According to this ex-combatant, who requested to remain anonymous, the governing Swapo party has the responsibility of identifying and locating the graves of fallen ex-combatants and to facilitate the exhumation of their remains and give them descent burials. Alternatively, the combatant adds, Swapo has the responsibility of decently marking the graves.
“If you travel around the country, especially here in the north, you will find a lot of unmarked graves. The graves of our brothers and sisters are unmarked. What are they doing? We have been waiting for too long and our comrades must be turning in their graves.
“It is a worldwide trend to give decent burials to fallen soldiers and I don’t understand why Swapo is taking long,” the combatant stated.
Another ex-PLAN combatant also joined the fray adding that a nationwide project to locate the graves of ex-PLAN soldiers should be launched and be executed with the assistance of members of the public from areas that were war-zones during the Namibian-Angolan bush war.
“Community members know where the graves are because in many cases they are the ones who buried the soldiers. Swapo can easily engage them and obtain information about the graves so that our brothers could be recognized. There is no justice and respect on what we are doing.
“We always praise them for their sacrifice but we don’t want to give them due recognition,” Justus Ileka told Omutumwa this week.
Ileka stressed that many of his fallen comrades lie in unmarked graves in areas around Epinga in the Ohangwena region after dying in combat in the 1970s.
In April 2023, northern businessman Banda Shilimela and several fellow PLAN ex-combatants dug up and exhumed the remains of 12 departed fellow combatants at Enghandja village in Ohangwena. Shilimela said at the time that the aim was to give a proper burial to the slain soldiers.
However, their action was not well-received by Namibian authorities with ex-police chief Sebastian Ndeitunga calling it ‘illegal’ and reprimanding the group for exhuming the remains without official authorisation. Shilimela at the time claimed he had official authorisation from the police boss.
Efforts to obtain comment from Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa proved futile as her phone went unanswered.
Nonetheless, a regional councillor in Ohangwena, who chose to remain anonymous pointed to Omutumwa upon inquiry that government has sanctioned regional councilors countrywide to lead the process of identifying graves of ex-PLAN combatants with the assistance of community members and have them registered for proper marking.
“The process is still ongoing. Several graves were identified and properly marked. Unfortunately to my knowledge, not all remains would be exhumed. People can just go to their regional councilors and report any unmarked grave,” the councilor indicated.
In the photo: A photo of former Swapo’s military wing’s combatants, known as People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (Plan) saluting the remains of a colleague whom they exhumed from a shallow grave.
