January 6 2008

MY REPLY TO PRESIDENT POHAMBA

Once again, Namibian President Lucas Hifikepunye Pohamba made an unprovoked and untruthful accusation against my person yesterday. Addressing a SWAPO Party rally held at the town of Outapi, capital of the Omusati Region, yesterday afternoon, the newly appointed SWAPO Party President inter alia called me “a big liar”.

President Pohamba made that accusation as he lamented that I have dented former SWAPO Party President Sam Nujoma’s image of “heroism”. Specifically, Mr. Pohamba accused me of having “lied” that Nujoma has assaulted a Namibian woman at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in 1987.

This is the third time, since August 2007, that President Pohamba is mentioning my name at a public event. On the first occasion, during a nationally televised address on August 9 2007, Pohamba twisted facts by claiming inter alia that I “have made a submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking the prosecution of our Founding President and three other Namibians”.

That was, of course, hostile political propaganda! I have never really sought the ICC prosecution of Nujoma. Rather, NSHR, which I lead, requested the ICC to investigate crimes against humanity against Nujoma and three other Namibians, in their personal capacity. Such request still stands.

Secondly, Mr. Pohamba repeated the same accusations against my person regarding the ICC issue during Heroes Day commemorations at the town of Eenhana, capital of the Ohangwena Region, on August 26 2007. Significantly, this was also when and where Mr. Pohamba publicly denied that he was a Nujoma puppet.

I sincerely appreciate the impact and prominence President Pohamba apparently attributes to my presence in this country and to my capacity to deal with, among others, my political adversaries, such as former SWAPO Party President Nujoma. However, I am compelled to respond to Mr. Pohamba’s accusations of yesterday against me.

For the record, I have never made a statement that Nujoma has physically assaulted a woman at the European Parliament in 1987. This is a blue lie! As any honest observer could see from the attached report* in the Afrikaans language titled “Talitha vertel self” (meaning “Talitha tells her own story”) published in Die Republikein newspaper on May 25 1987, the allegation that Mr. Sam Nujoma has assaulted a woman originated from the victim herself, Ms. Talitha Schmidt, and NOT from Phil ya Nangoloh, as Pohamba claims!

Moreover, Nujoma himself does not even accuse me of being the original source of the Schmidt assault story. In his autobiography, Where Others Wavered, on page 356, this is inter alia what Nujoma says about the Schmidt assault scandal:

“As I arrived with members of parliament and our own security people to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg, I was confronted by a group shouting “Where are our children?” No sooner had we passed by the group than one of them issued a ready-prepared text, claiming that I had physically assaulted a woman protester”.

So, who told President Pohamba that I was the one who “fabricated” that statement? I challenge Pohamba to produce such a copy of that statement! Otherwise, the President’s credibility and image is at stake. Mr. Pohamba has the choice to continue telling this lie about me knowing very well that this is a blatant untruth.

I am really very disappointed in President Pohamba. I lament that this is not the same Pohamba that I have always known, held in high esteem and that I have known as an exemplary national leader as well as a fatherly and wise figure that dislikes lies and impropriety. Mr. Pohamba demonstrated these qualities during the first 18 months of his presidency. I have on numerous occasions publicly praised President Pohamba for that. Now I am increasingly being confronted with a different Pohamba. Either the President was not his own man then or is he now showing his true colors?

I am really sick and tired of the unprovoked, careless and untruthful nature of the accusations President Pohamba now so often hurls at me in his propagandistic speeches. Normally, it is not n prudent and mature to make unprovoked accusations against anyone.

In light of the above, let me state here now and then that I respected and admired Pohamba as a wise statesman who has received me and my human rights colleagues at least three times at State House and, further, who has in the past publicly praised me on numerous occasions.

President Pohamba has no right to abuse his public position to make me his “punching bag” and or to assassinate my character, including calling me “a big liar”! I have the capacity to verbally strike back incisively at the President. However, I am extremely reluctant to do so for the time being. Instead, I am extending my hand of friendship to President Pohamba and I am wishing him and his family a Prosperous New Year!

Phil ya Nangoloh