South African Churches Express Shock over Discovery of Namibian Graves

The South African Council of Churches has expressed shock at the discovery of human remains in mass graves at a former South African military base at Eenhana in northern Namibia.

|TOP|General secretary of the SACC, Dr Molefe Tsele, said in a letter to the head of the Namibian Council of Churches, Rev. Phillips Strydom, that the Council was “shocked” and “morally outraged” by the grisly finds, made earlier in the month.

Dr Tsele suggested the finds were clearly linked to Namibia’s struggle for independence against the long and bloody occupation by South Africa’s apartheid era security forces.

In the letter the leader of the SACC expressed the Council’s condolences to the people of Namibia and also asked Rev. Strydom what South Africans could do to honour the memory of the people whose bodies were discovered in the mass graves.

Dr Tsele also urged that the remains of the dead be treated with dignity and their memories with respect.

“There is a danger that the deaths of these soldiers will be dismissed as an inconsequential artefact of an unpleasant conflict that we would rather not recall and that the people who committed these crimes will never be brought to justice,” wrote Dr Tsele.

The General Secretary of the SACC also pleaded with any South Africans who might have information regarding the graves to come forward: “We invite them to help us to close this ugly chapter of our history by telling what they know.”