Africa-Press – Namibia. The government has warned the United Democratic Party (UDP) that renewed secession efforts in the Zambezi region would have legal consequences and would not succeed.
The party’s attempts to destabilise peace and stability in the Zambezi region is punishable by law, it says.
These sentiments follow yet another demonstration by UDP members last week demanding that the government vacate the Zambezi region (formerly known as the Caprivi Strip) to allow them to start their own government with Mishake Muyongo as their president.
Executive director of information and communication technology Audrin Mathe on Sunday told The Namibian the government’s position on the territorial integrity of the country has not changed and won’t ever.
He said the Zambezi region remains an integral part of the country’s sovereign territory.
“The UDP’s demands for military withdrawal, prisoner releases, and the implementation of spurious historical agreements lack both legal foundation and constitutional validity.
“Hence any attempt to destabilise the peace and stability that has been carefully maintained in the Zambezi region or any other part of our country will be met with the full force of the law,” he said.
Mathe said if it is the banned UDP’s attempt to undermine the current government’s resolve with the resurrection of the self-determination and territorial separation demands, it has failed.
“It is the same secessionist rhetoric that has been consistently rejected by the government and people of Namibia since the failed armed rebellion of August 1999,” he said.
Mathe said the government remains committed to providing jobs and essential services to the people of Namibia, including the citizens of the Zambezi region.
He reiterated that the government continues to make significant investments in infrastructure, education, healthcare, and economic development in the region.
“We do not wake up each morning to ventilate old grievances or to relitigate settled questions about our nation’s territorial boundaries, but rather to advance the practical work of nation-building and development that benefits all Namibians,” he said.
Over the past 26 years, UDP and Caprivi Concerned Group (CCG) members have staged numerous demonstrations for a dialogue with the government, as well as sought the interventions of international communities to intervene in the Caprivi Strip dispute.
In a petition last week, the UDP said it no longer wants a dialogue but instead called on president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to command the Namibian Defence Force (NDF) to vacate the Caprivian territory as soon as possible.
The party also demanded the unconditional release of all “Caprivi” political prisoners in Namibia and the immediate return of “Caprivian” exiles.
Furthermore, the UDP demands the immediate withdrawal of all “Swapo Gestapo security apparatus, as well as the immediate handover of the Caprivi Strip to the representatives of the people of Caprivi (UDP)”.
They accused the government of torture, murder, detaining and intimidating them, and alleged the existence of mass graves of “Caprivians” who were executed and buried secretly by the Namibian government, as well as the disappearance of corpses from the mortuary.
Furthermore, the UDP claimed the repatriation of “Caprivians” in 2018 and 2019 was done under duress, as they were threatened and forcefully repatriated by the Botswana government in exchange for a dry port harbour and other islands of the “Caprivi Strip”.
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