By Risco Lumamezi
FREDA Tungulu (55) is appealing to the Namibian government to unearth the graves and make pension payouts of the two members of the Caprivi Liberation Army.
Ms Tungulu, a widow and sister of the two members of the Caprivi Liberation Army who were killed during the battle on September 3, 1999 at Mabumbu village south of the Caprivi region, has been asking government and the civil pressure groups in Namibia to intervene on the matter in order to locate the missing corpses graves to her and the family for attention and reparation.
The concerned woman has since been asking for the payments of the pension of the deceased since there were working in the public service of Namibia, but all to no avail.
“Up to now they haven’t shown me the graves of my late brother and husband, the bodies disappeared, and I went to Katima Mulilo State Hospital to locate them all to no avail”
According to her, she and other family members witnessed the incidence on 14 September when the two corpses were taken from the village.
“ we saw them I was sitting on my husband’s corpse, when they were taken then after we went to the police cells for interrogation with my co-wife Lydia, they started interrogating us saying why did we allow them to go , so when they went to SWAPO in Exile Whom did they tell to go ?”
She alleged to Caprivi Vision that her late brother Hans Meyer Tungulu, former policeman and late Shadrick Chainda former NDF soldier, the husband were brutal killed by cutting their throats and plucking their eyes with a knife after several shots of the bullets of a machine gun all over their bodies before they were taken to the Katima Mulilo State mortuary.
She added that her life is in danger, as some of the police officers are still threatening her life,
“When they arrested Nine Masule, ‘a fugitive hardcore criminal’ last year 2016, April. They went to my house several times without any warrant of search, threatening me that I was hiding him, nine is not even my family, but why are they doing that to me?”
The poor woman still asking for the pension payout of the two, to be paid as all children of her late brother and her children are suffering as all of them they did not finish their schooling due to long suffering.
Background information
Caprivi Vision edition of 2010
Freda speaks out!
The corpse that went missing in September 1999 was not recovered up to day, Freda Tungulu who spoke to the Caprivi vision said her husband and her brother were killed by the Namibian Defence Force on September 3, 1999 and their corpse was brought to Katima Mulilo state mortuary.
Her husband’s pension was claimed and paid to his other wife he married in community of properties and Freda did not benefit anything to the pension and her brother‘s pension nothing have been paid yet but she have claimed it.
“I have two daughters which the late left me with, one completed grade 12 and the other is still at school and my brother also left three daughters, one is in grade 12 and others in grade 10 and they are all looking to me now for support, the salary am paid is very less as a cleaner and it can’t carter them all, why can’t they give me even the pension? I went to the governor’s office twice seeking for the help and he told me to wait because he was still have to meet others and up to now I am still waiting, am not yet answered,” she stressed
Freda is asking the state to show her the graves of her husband and her brother, “My daughters are not giving me time they are troubling me, yes they know that their father was killed but the question they can’t understand is where their father was buried and who were there? Myself I don’t know where they took them but when they were killing them I was there and I was forced to sit on my husband’s dead body when they brought them to the mortuary,” she explained
Freda wants to know who signed for the corps when they were taken out from the mortuary as the hospital have some registers where they record everything that take place at the hospital.
“If they were burned I want to be shown where they burned them, I will pick even the sand from there and burry it myself,” she further
However, Namibia’s National Society for Human Rights ‘s Executive Director Mr. Phil ya Nangoloh confirmed to The Caprivi Vision that the case was reported to his organization and they have forwarded a letter to the Ministry of Safety and Security .
“I’m coming to them before the end of the year, 2010” said Mr. ya Nangoloh
The case has never been in courts and the family members of the deceased are worried that it is almost 10 years since their missing bodies were taken out of the state mortuary by unknown persons.
According to the Human Rights Defender Mr. Ya Nangoloh, “ the person (Captain Henry Mwilima) accused is dead, if they want us to go ahead then , Captain Mwilima he was doing it on behalf of somebody ( govt) ” he said.
In an effort to get the legality of the case, the Caprivi Vision spoke to the Attorney General and Minister of Presidential Affairs, Dr. Albert Kawana who referred this reporter to the Minister of Health and Social Services.“ just check with the honourable Dr.Kamwi he is just there, am hearing this issue from you I don’t have facts to establish whether it’s true or not ” quashed Dr. Kawana
Asked to comment on the missing bodies at Katima State mortuary, current Health Minister Dr.Richard Kamwi responded to Caprivi Vision that since the incident happened in 1999 when he was not yet appointed as the Minister of Health and Social Services.
“What I can say is that I have no knowledge of that” said Dr. Kamwi.
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