From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: NAMIBIA: A GLIMMER OF HOPE OVER WAL
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 23:41:04 GMT

Area: North America
Title: NAMIBIA: A GLIMMER OF HOPE OVER WALVIS BAY


an inter press service feature

by accadoga chiledi

windhoek, aug 24 (ips) -- namibia may be heading to repossess
its controversial enclave of walvis bay and 10 offshore islets
if latest south african moves are anything to go by.

south african foreign minister roloef ''pik'' botha announced
at the weekend his country had reached agreement with namibia on
a joint administration of the enclave.

the technical committees set up by the two countries last
year to work out the modalities of joint administration would
resume their meeting in two weeks' time, botha told a news
conference at windhoek airport friday.

botha was speaking after talks with namibian foreign minister
theo-ben gurirab, during a stop-over from walvis bay where he
was met by angry demonstrators with placards saying: ''walvis
bay is ours''.

south africa governs walvis bay under the defunct league of
nations' south west africa (namibia) mandate. at namibia's
independence mar. 21, 1990 following u.n.-supervised elections,
south africa retained walvis bay.

but it granted africa's newest nation full access to the
walvis port facilities. walvis bay is southern africa's only
deep-water port and handles half of namibia's total exports.

in an effort to resolve the issue amicably, the namibian
government proposed to the south african government soon
after independence the setting up of a joint administration
authority until such time namibia would repossess walvis bay.

the proposal was accepted by south africa. the two countries
set up technical committees which held a series of meetings from
the beginning of 1991 until they ended in a deadlock in the
second half of last year over technical issues, a senior
namibian government official told ips monday.

the deadlock was over two main issues, according to the
official: the ''time framework'' for joint administration and
namibia's ''sovereignty'' over the enclave.

namibia had proposed two years of joint administration during
which south africa would relinquish its authority over walvis
bay. but south africa is understood to want a much longer time
framework, says the official who spoke to ips on condition of
anonymity. (more/ips)


namibia: a glimmer (2)

botha said friday joint administration covers commerce and
fishing, the kuiseb river (in walvis bay) supply, customs and
excise, tourism, health, industrial development and natural
conservation. but it excludes schools, courts, police and
citizenship.

but with south africa's history of intransigence over the
whole question of namibia's independence, which included walvis
bay, namibians do not place much hope in botha's latest attempts
to pacify them.

on the eve of the botha-gurirab encounter, namibia's foreign
ministry warned namibians ''not to raise premature and
unrealistic expectations... that the territories (walvis bay and
its 10 islets) are about to be returned to their rightful
owners, namely the government and people of namibia''.

the namibia government is clearly running out of patience
with south african delaying tactics. ''there is no reason for
any more excuses or delays'', says the ministry's statement.

''it is the south african government which is going to have
to show good faith and political will on this pressing and
important issue''.

in its comment aug. 21, the english-language daily, 'the
namibian' said: ''it is perhaps over-optimistic to hope botha's
visit to walvis bay and windhoek will herald much in the way of
progress on the reintegration of our port.

''but residents of that enclave will undoubtedly make the
most of the minister's visit to protest continued south african
occupation of walvis bay'', said the comment by the newspaper's
editor, gwen lester, the 1988 winner of the ips journalism
award.

''we hope their voices will be heard by both the south
african and namibian authorities. but to be honest, we don't
expect much from what is currently called 'silent diplomacy' and
which seems to be just that''.

leaders of the newly-formed southern africa development
community (sadc), meeting here last week, expressed ''concern''
about the ''status of walvis bay and the offshore islands''.

the leaders of angola, botswana, lesotho, malawi, mozambique,
namibia, swaziland, tanzania, zambia and zimbabwe ''called on
the international community to put pressure on south africa to
restore the sovereignty over walvis bay and the offshore islands
to namibia''. (end/ips/apc/ar/92)



-- 
Mr. Aaron Barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us -- posting from Evanston, Illinois
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african