Mass grave a govt issue

2005-11-11 12:45

Pretoria - Investigations into the discovery of a mass grave 400m from a former South African military base in Namibia would be a government to government issue, the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) said on Friday.

Construction workers earlier this week discovered a mass grave containing human bones and ammunition 400m from the former SADF site.

"Because the SADF no longer exists, having been replaced by the SANDF, the issue of the mass grave will have to be discussed directly between the two governments," said SANDF spokesman Sam Mkhwanazi.

The Star reported on Friday that the bones were believed to be the remains of South West African People's Organisation (Swapo) liberation fighters killed under South African occupation of Namibia.

With the exhumation of the grave still in progress, it was not known how many bodies the grave contained.

"This is a serious matter; a huge massacre has happened. Those in the South African army need to tell us why they shot these people," Ohangwena regional governor Usko Nghaamwa said.

Constand Viljoen, who was chief of the army from 1977 to 1985, reacted that it was impossible for well disciplined South African troops to have buried guerrillas in mass graves, as dealing with any bodies had been a police function.

However, Jane's Defence Weekly correspondent Helmoed-Romer Heitman told The Star photographs existed of South African troops burying Swapo members towards the end of the liberation war in 1989 when, in the absence of mortuary facilities, the dead were buried in pits dug by front-end loaders.

The grave was discovered near the Eenhana base, 100km from Oshakati, in the Oukwanyama district.

- SAPA