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Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 11:20:11 +0200
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Subject: NAMIBIA: Government ignores order to release detainee [2001026]
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NAMIBIA: Government ignores order to release detainee

JOHANNESBURG, 26 October (IRIN) - Namibia's government has ignored a High
Court order to release from detention a 63-year-old businessman who was
arrested last week, along with three others, in a security forces' clampdown
on suspected sympathisers of Angola's rebel UNITA movement.

The court order, issued on Tuesday following an urgent application by the
son of Jose Domingo Sikunda, also directed Namibia's home affairs ministry
to reverse the deportation order to Angola against Sikunda. Sikunda and the
three others, who all claim to have been resident in Namibia since the late
1970s, are being held in the Sarasongo detention centre in the northern town
of Rundu, on the border between Namibia and Angola. 

The four men have all been served with deportation orders to Angola because,
according to the ministry, they are a danger to Namibia's security.  

Sikunda's son, with help from lawyers secured by the Namibian Society for
Human Rights (NSHR), successfully argued that his father's detention was
unlawful and appealed that the deportation order served on him be reversed.
The judge granted the application, ruling that the government should show by
10 November why the ruling should not be made a court order. 

According to the independent daily 'The Namibian' and NSHR, Namibian and
Angolan security forces have rounded up hundreds of Rundu residents along
the joint Kavango river border in a month-long crackdown against UNITA
rebels and their alleged sympathisers. Claims of torture and beatings of
detainees mainly in Sarasongo have been detailed by NSHR in a security
campaign dubbed 'Operation Eagle'.

Hophni Hamufungu, the public relations head of Namibia's police, on Monday
told 'The Namibian' that the campaign to "isolate" UNITA elements from the
Namibian population in the Kavango region was made difficult because they
had acquired the right to live in Namibia. 

"The problem that we have is that if you want to isolate UNITA, you must
ensure that they do not have collaborators in the country," Hamufungu said.
"You cannot root out someone whom you cannot distinguish from your local
populace," he added.

[ENDS]   

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Keyword: Angola