Windhoek
More than 700 Namibians living at Dukwe Refugee Camp in Botswana, who filed an urgent application on December 31 last year seeking a restraining order to stop the Botswana government from implementing the cessation clause, will soon return to the Lobatse High Court.
The two parties are going to court following the Botswana government’s failure to invoke the cessation clause of December 31, 2015 in respect of Namibian refugees living in Dukwe Refugee Camp.
The calling into motion of the cessation clause means the refugee status accorded to Namibian refugees in that country would have ceased to be in effect as from December 31, 2015.
On the eve of the invocation of the cessation clause about 732 refugees, led by Felix Kakula, filed an urgent application seeking a restraining order to stop the Botswana government from implementing the clause.
Their application was supported by an affidavit from the Botswana Centre for Human Rights, known as Ditshwanelo, which also provided assistance by securing legal representation for the group.
In the affidavit, the refugees argue that should they return to Namibia they would face prosecution for alleged political offences committed in Namibia prior to their seeking refuge in Botswana in 1999.
The Ditshwanelo Centre further alleges that “there are instances of persecution”, noting that “on the 9th December 2015 some of the Botswana returnees were found guilty of treason, sedition and attempted murder, and sentenced to imprisonment.”
Ditshwanelo said it would be unsafe for the Namibians’ refugee status to be revoked before the applicants are fully informed on the outcome of the “Go and See and Come and Tell” mission of 2015.
Their application was heard by Acting Justice Jennifer Dube of the Lobatse High Court on January 4 this year, who ordered the Botswana government not to deport the refugees.
Dube also ordered the Botswana government to provide the Namibian refugees with a copy of the Tripartite Commission report on the “Go and See and Come and Tell” mission in July last year.
Kakula, during the mission last year, allegedly advocated for secession everywhere the delegation went in the Zambezi Region.
Governor of the Zambezi Region, Lawrence Sampofu apparently had no other choice but to deport the delegation back to Botswana.
Dube also directed that written grounds for the government’s decision to revoke their refugee status in the country should be made available by Friday.
Minister of Home Affairs Pendukeni Iivula-Ithana, who was speaking on the issue in the National Assembly on Tuesday, said Ditshwanelo and their press release published in the Botswanan press on January 21 cannot go unchallenged, as it lacked honesty and is devoid of any truth.
“They alleged among others that there has been no evidence that the environment in Namibia, politically and otherwise, in relation to the applicants has been adjusted,” she said, while countering that Namibia is a democratic country governed in terms of its Constitution and the rule of law.
She said separatism is a crime in almost every country, noting that those who participated in such acts of violence would inevitably face prosecution.
She said the majority of the 700 plus refugees in Botswana are young people who left Namibia either very young or were born there.
“What crime have such innocent persons committed? Mr Kakula may know the crime he himself committed before fleeing to Botswana and is, therefore, holding everybody else hostage for his own sake.
“The utterances of Ditshwanelo are a fabrication and deserve to be thrown in the dustbin where it belongs,” the minister remarked.
Although the matter will be argued in court on Friday, she reiterated the willingness and readiness of the Namibian government to receive the Namibian refugees currently living in Botswana, if they want to be repatriated.
Out of the 3 000 refugees who fled to Botswana since 1998 over 2 100 have to date returned to Namibia. Iivula-Ithana said they live normal lives, like all other Namibians.
“This in the eyes of the international community is proof enough that whatever had made those who fled to do so had fallen away,” she said.
Last year, the Namibian and Botswana governments held an extraordinary tripartite meeting in Gaborone on the issue of the Namibian refugees living at Dukwe since 1998 and 1999, following the attempted secession of the then Caprivi Region.
Ar that meeting, the minister responsible for refugee affairs in Botswana, Shaw Khathi, informed both the UNHCR representatives and Iivula-Ithana and her delegation that Botswana would invoke the cessation clause as of December 31, 2015, which would effectively rescind the refugee status of those Namibians living at Dukwe refugee camp.