Farayi Munyuki This week, the Founding Father of the Nation, Dr Sam Nujoma was at his peak and pulled his old punches against the former South African Defence forces, Margaret Thatcher, the former British Prime Minister, the former UN Special Envoy Maarti Ahtisaari and some of the local media for fanning what should best be forgotten. Ahtisaari is now the president of his country, perhaps in recognition of what he did for Namibia and in the Balkan area. Pik Botha, the South African Foreign Minister at the time was also in his sights. There must be more graves that he knows of in Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola and the list is endless. Botha was the voice of apartheid. He defended it at international meetings. He saw no reason why it couldn’t be defended. He spoke glowingly of the atrocities it committed in Mozambique, at Nyadzonya, at Morogoro in Tanzania, at Chimoi in Mozambique, at Feira in Zambia. This is the army that Pik Botha should not have associated with if he had a human face. Ahtisaari should have known better. He had all the intelligence from Britain, his own country Finland, and should have known that the South African army at the time was nothing but a killing machine. It showed no mercy to those who were opposed to it. The apartheid regime used gun-ships supplied by the Thatcher government. Otherwise how can one explain the Nicodemus flight into Namibia by Thatcher on April 1 which was followed by the killing of hundreds of Swapo members? It doesn’t matter whom you wish to believe, but hundreds of young men and women including civilians and children perished in the North just because foreign troops wanted an arrangement that would deny victory to Swapo. They orchestrated the war and convinced the west that they were in Namibia and Angola in order to halt the spread of communism. It is unfortunate that Ahtisaari would have found a common denominator with Pik Botha and Margaret Thatcher. What would Finland gain in the annihilation of Swapo? Finland for years has been seen as a friend of the African people. It is a country that has always voted on international issues with the African people both at the UN and at other international fora. Only history will judge those who were wrong or who helped the people of Namibia gain their rightful independence. It is most inconceivable that the United States would have come out of this terrible saga unscathed. With the support they were giving Jonas Savimbi, they would not have been disinterested in what was happening in Namibia. The South Africans in Angola were also supporting Savimbi both militarily and financially. Revelation of the mass graves in the north is a deliberate scheme to divide Swapo and place the blame on the Swapo leadership, thereby hoping to divide the party’s leadership. It is most unfortunate that some newspaper men and women have chosen to take sides before the matter is fully investigated. Pictures published go to show where the editor of this particular paper was at the time of the liberation war. Those who play with a hand grenade should not blame the manufacturer when it explodes in their hands. Ahtisaari has a responsibility to explain to the world what actually happened, otherwise his hands are also tainted with the Namibian blood. So should Margaret Thatcher, the so-called iron lady, explain why she was in Namibia on April 1. As for Pik Botha, his cupboards are already full with the remains of Zambians, Angolans, Zimbabweans and Namibians. The South African government has also a moral duty to bring those men and women still in its defence forces to Namibia to tell the country what actually happened. The Founding Father of the Namibian Nation has given his account of what happened and now let’s hear from the other three. They should either tell us what actually happened or shut up and stop using surrogates.