‘ICC submission is a terrorist act because it has the potential to disrupt peace, stability and our sovereignty’ – SPYL
By Kuvee Kangueehi
WINDHOEK
The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) has called on the government to declare the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) a security threat, saying it has persistently abused freedom of speech and expression and lately violated the policy of national re-conciliation.
Addressing a press conference in Windhoek yesterday, the SPYL Secretary for Information, Publicity and Mobilization Elijah Ngurare said the violation of the Policy of National Reconciliation must clearly result in a conviction.
He called on the government to hold the NSHR, its sponsors and Phil ya Nangoloh responsible for violation of peace, stability and independence.
The call follows a reported submission to the International Criminal Court by the head of the human rights organisation, Phil Ya Nangoloh.
The submission by the National Society for Human Rights’ executive director seeks to bring Founding President Sam Nujoma, former Minister of Defence Erkki Nghimtina, former Chief of Defence Solomon Hawala and NDF Colonel Thomas Shuuya before the court for alleged war crimes.
The SPYL becomes the second structure of the Swapo Party to come to the defence of Nujoma, who has been accused of having CIA connections and threatened with legal action before the International Criminal Court.
The Swapo Party Central Committee was the first to come to Nujoma’s defence and issued a statement after their meeting.
The National Union of Namibia Workers (NUNW) on Monday also defended Nujoma.
Ngurare took a swipe at the sponsors of the NSHR and said it was patronizing that the sponsors deemed it appropriate to allow their funds to aid the treacherous process aimed at getting Nujoma and other Swapo Party leaders to stand trial at the ICC.
He said the SPYL views the action as deliberate in order to derail the resounding progress Namibia has attained under the Swapo Party government.
For the SPYL, the ICC submission is a declaration of war on the Policy of National Reconciliation and may be viewed as a “terrorist act because it has the potential to disrupt peace, stability and our sovereignty”.
Ngurare also slammed Ya Nangoloh’s claim that the Swapo Party Secretary General Ngarikutuke Tjiriange has made a ‘veiled death threat on the person of Phil Ya Nangoloh’.
“This so-called veiled death threat is a pure fabrication and figment of the NSHR’s wasteful imagination.”
Ngurare said the Swapo Party and its government has for the past seventeen years created a conducive environment in which even the fiercest critics including Ya Nangoloh have been protected by the laws of Namibia.
“The NSHR, its sponsors and collaborators could pursue their political comedy elsewhere and not intentionally distort and spread lies about death threats.”
Ngurare said Ya Nangoloh and his obsession with the name of Sam Nujoma borders on psychological sickness for which he might require counselling and be shown the errors of his ways.
The youth leader said their tolerance is embodied in Nujoma because he emphasized the Policy of National Reconciliation.
He warned that the militants of the SPYL have not forgotten how to operate bazookas and machine-guns and they know where the trenches are, but because of reconciliation have opted for peace.
“If the NSHR and its sponsors dare touch our national and historical treasure in the person of Nujoma, the time bomb will explode and when it does, the consequences will predictably be disastrous not only to the NSHR and its sponsors but also to those who economically control the means of production.”
He said if it were not for Nujoma who called for reconciliation, then retribution against the minority whites such as leaders of the opposition parties who collaborated with the apartheid regime, could have occurred and they could have been imprisoned or even sentenced to death and capital punishment would still have been in place.
Meanwhile, Ngurare has announced that there will be a mass march in support of Nujoma and other Swapo Party leaders as well as a protest against the NSHR on August 21 in Windhoek.
Another march is expected tomorrow when the University of Namibia (Unam) students will march to the Office of the Prime Minister to hand over a petition to Premier Nahas Angula regarding the NSHR statements.