Day One of U.N.-Supervised Transition : Namibia Starts March to Independence

Namibia, South Africa’s vast colony for 74 years, began its long-delayed march to independence today under the supervision of the largest and most expensive U.N. peacekeeping mission in history.

“The people of Namibia have waited long years for this day, and it is the eve of an era: an era of all of the people of Namibia,” Martti Ahtisaari, the U.N.’s special representative to Namibia, said Friday as he arrived to monitor the transition from African colony to nationhood.

“Namibia has truly been a wound in the side of Africa,” Ahtisaari told a news conference at Windhoek’s airport. “But it also has a special place in the hearts and minds of the whole world.”

Thousands of cheering Namibians came by train, bus and even on horseback across the scrubby desert to line the airport road and welcome the U.N. official, who arrived on a South African Airways flight from Frankfurt, West Germany.

The throng, bedecked in traditional African dress and the bright colors of some of the territory’s 40 political parties, carried signs reading: “No Government Based on Ethnicity,” “No to a One-Party System” and “Welcome Martti.” Women in braided hair ululated and danced while political organizers with bullhorns called out slogans to their faithful.

‘We Want an Election’

“We’re here to show these U.N. people how much we want an election,” said Katjimuini Veii, who was wearing a T-shirt expressing his support for the Namibian Patriotic Front, a coalition of political parties.

Ahtisaari’s arrival was eagerly awaited here because it signaled the start of an 11-year-old U.N. plan to free Namibia, a rugged land of only 1.5 million people on the southwestern coast of Africa.

South Africa, itself then a self-governing British possession, captured the colony from Germany in World War I. After the war, the League of Nations gave South Africa the mandate to govern the territory. South Africa became fully independent of Britain in 1934 and after World War II, the league’s successor organization, the United Nations, refused to allow it to annex the territory. In 1966, the U.N. General Assembly terminated South Africa’s mandate in Namibia.

Pretoria has defiantly occupied Namibia for more than 20 years. Since the mid-1970s, it had cited the presence of Cuban troops in Angola, Namibia’s northern neighbor. But in December, it agreed to bring its troops out, in return for a promise that Cuba would pull its troops out of Angola.

Test of Commitment

The independence process is considered an important test of South Africa’s commitment to peace in southern Africa. South Africa also hopes a smooth transition for Namibia will improve Pretoria’s image abroad and help reduce its international economic and political isolation.

“We are leaving Namibia with a feeling that we have fulfilled our commitments here with dignity,” Roelof F. (Pik) Botha, South Africa’s foreign minister, said Friday at a news conference in Windhoek. Describing South Africa’s contributions to Namibia’s infrastructure over the years, Botha added, “I cannot imagine a country that has a better hope of making a success of independence than this one.”

The U.N.’s Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG), which will cost $416 million, includes a multinational force of 4,650 troops and, at its height, 2,500 additional monitors, administrators and local staff. About 1,000 troops already have arrived and are stationed throughout the territory to monitor the election campaign and voting.

Under the U.N. transition, Namibia will be governed until independence by South Africa’s administrator general “to the satisfaction of” the U.N.’s Ahtisaari, according to the U.N. resolution.

Ahtisaari, U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar’s personal envoy in Namibia, said the joint U.N.-South Africa effort marked “a unique and pioneering vision.” If successful, he added, “the prospect for a peaceful settlement of even the (world’s) most intractable problems will have taken a giant stride forward.”

“We’d like to see these elections be really free and fair, free of the scourge of violence and intimidation,” the South African administrator, Louis Pienaar, said in pledging his country’s impartiality. “We would like to prove that democratic elections can be held in this part of the world.”

Cease-Fire in Effect

A formal U.N.-negotiated cease-fire between South Africa and the South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), which has waged a 23-year guerrilla war for independence, went into effect at dawn today although the two sides had informally observed a cease-fire since December.

Also beginning today, South Africa’s troops are confined to two bases in the country, and SWAPO’s soldiers must remain in their bases in Angola and Zambia.

About 24,000 black Namibians who have fought with the South African army against SWAPO are being disbanded and ordered to surrender their weapons and uniforms.

Namibia’s independence is guided by a strict timetable. By mid-May, all discriminatory laws must be repealed, and by early June all political prisoners and detainees held by both sides must be released. South Africa has until July to reduce its troop strength in Namibia to 1,500, from a high last year of about 30,000.

Namibians who fled the country to escape the war and SWAPO members who went into exile are expected to begin returning in the coming weeks. The United Nations estimates that about 58,000 Namibians are living in exile, most of them in southern Angola.

Namibia’s election campaign begins in July and, in early November, the territory will elect an assembly to draw up a new constitution. The whole process is expected to be concluded by this time next year.

SWAPO, with its strong base of support in the north, Namibia’s most populous region, is regarded by many political analysts as the likely winner in an election. But few believe it will gain the two-thirds majority needed to design the constitution by itself.

Namibia, a mostly desert land with mines producing diamonds and uranium, is one of the world’s least-populous regions. In fact, the territory will have one U.N. soldier for every 200 Namibians. But because of the large distances to be covered, the world body considers its mission in Namibia “the most complicated mission we have ever put on,” according to Cedric Thornberry, the second-ranking U.N. official here.

Most of Namibia’s inhabitants are black and 60% of them live in the north, where SWAPO draws most of its support. Only 80,000 Namibians, about 6% of the total population, are white. But they control many of the businesses.

Most of Namibia’s whites, including those who strongly oppose the U.N. presence here, have decided to remain at least until the November elections. Many more moderate whites have decided to actively contest the election in the hope of preventing a sweeping SWAPO victory.

Before today, Namibia had been governed by a multiracial transitional government, but South Africa’s administrator retained veto power over legislation. Although apartheid was formally abolished several years ago, segregated second-tier governmental bodies kept such institutions as schools and hospitals racially separate.

But the government has been abolished and, until independence, Pienaar, South Africa’s administrator, will be in control of the country. On matters relating to the upcoming elections, however, his actions must meet with the approval of the United Nations.

NAMIBIA NEARS INDEPENDENCE (Southland Edition)

Today marks the beginning of a transition period for Namibia under a regional accord reached in December by South Africa (which has administered the huge, sparsely populated territory since World War I), Angola and Cuba. Provisions of the plan:

April 1--Cease-fire in 23-year-old Namibian guerrilla war becomes official; U.N. special representative Martti Ahtisaari takes charge of the 7,000-member U.N. Transition Assistance Group who will oversee the transition. South African troops in Namibia and guerrillas of the South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), based in neighboring Angola, are confined to their bases.

May 14--South African security force is disbanded; South Africa reduces its forces to 12,000 troops. South African administrator Louis Pienaar publishes election rules, subject to U.N. approval.

June 3--Political prisoners freed; Namibian exiles return.

July 1--Pretoria’s forces cut to 1,500; election campaigning begins.

Oct. 31--25,000 Cuban troops have left Angola, rest withdraw north of 13th Parallel.

Nov. 1--Elections held for Namibian Constituent Assembly, empowered to approve constitution for independent Namibia, the independence date to be decided.

Nov. 8--Remaining South African troops leave.

April 1, 1990--U.N. transition group’s mandate in Namibia ends; Cubans have removed 33,000 troops from Angola.

July 1, 1991--Cubans withdraw last of 50,000 troops from Angola.