WINDHOEK – The question over Namibia’s jurisdiction over the Zambezi Region and the competence of Namibian courts to try the secessionists arose again yesterday when the treason trial resumed.
In September 2013, 15 of the accused in the main Caprivi high treason trial launched a renewed legal attack on the High Court’s competence to try them. The accused also want the court to declare that the laws under which they have been charged do not apply to the Eastern Caprivi Zipfel – the pre-Independence name by which most of the Zambezi Region was known. The accused, through their lawyer argued that the High Court Act does not apply to that territory and that the High Court thus does not have jurisdiction over them. On Monday defence lawyer Ilse Agenbach representing 15 of the men called her witness first, Dr. John Lilemba, a researcher. Responding to a question from defence lawyer Clive Kavendjii, Lilemba claimed that from his research he could not prove that the Zambezi Region (formerly Caprivi Region) is part of Namibia. One of the defence lawyers, Greyson Nyoni asked Lilemba who has been governing Namibia since independence to which the former University of Namibia lecturer replied, “the Namibian government. “But I would not know if they [Namibian government] was running the Zambezi Region effectively, or we wouldn’t be sitting here today,” the researcher added. According to him if the people in the Zambezi Region “were happy about the government, then maybe there wouldn’t have been an uprising.”
Deputy Prosecutor General Taswald July then asked Lilemba if he was an expert on the boundaries of Namibia, to which he replied “no”, adding that he is a researcher. “A researcher can research anything.” He said he has done a lot of research on the region. The witness was then again asked if he was an expert on the Caprivi territory and he replied, “Yes, I am.”
After the State closed its case on February 7, 2012, the lawyers for 81 accused secessionists lodged an application for the discharge of their clients since, according to them there was no evidence against them. According to the law the accused can be discharged at the end of the prosecution’s case if there is no evidence before the court that the accused committed the offences they are charged with. Another 65 defendants remain in custody, among them John Samboma alleged to be the commander of the so-called Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA), and former DTA parliamentarian Geoffrey Mwilima. In February last year, Judge Elton Hoff discharged 43 individuals suspected of being secessionists, saying the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence to charge them. At the beginning of their trial in the High Court in Grootfontein in October 2003 all of the accused pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
They were all said to have played a role in the bloody attacks on the Katima Mulilo police station and the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) regional office on August 02, 1999.
The men are accused of having taken part in a conspiracy to secede the Zambezi Region, formerly known as the Caprivi Region, from Namibia between 1992 and 2002. Deputy Prosecutor-Generals Herman January and Taswald July represent the State in the protracted trial. The defence lawyers are Patrick Kauta, Greyson Nyoni, George Neves, Clive Kavendjii, Profysen Muluti, Jonathan Samukange, Victor Kachaka, Percy McNally, Hennie Kruger and Ilse Agenbach.
By Tunomukwathi Asino