Govt dismisses US rights report 
	
	
 MAX HAMATA 
	
	
 GOVERNMENT yesterday trashed a US human rights report which lists a number of human rights violations in Namibia at the hands of security forces and Government. 
	
	
 Information Permanent Secretary Mocks Shivute responded that the US government was the worst human rights violator in the world. 
	
	
 Shivute cited the American detention of 300 people at a US naval base at Guantanamo Bay without bringing them to trial. 
	
	
 The US government report on Namibia's human rights practices for 2001, released this week, says members of the security forces committed several extra-judicial killings during security operations in the Kavango and Caprivi Regions during 2001. 
	
	
 "There were deaths in custody. The Government did not account for the whereabouts of some persons detained by the security forces. During arrests and detentions, security force members reportedly tortured and beat citizens who were suspected of complicity with Unita," the report says. 
	
	
 It also cites cases of arbitrary deprivation of life, disappearance of people, torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, arbitrary arrest, and denial of a fair public hearing. 
	
	
 According to the rights report, most of the abuses were perpetrated by Special Field Force (SFF) members. 
	
	
 The report says even though the Namibian Constitution provided that people arrested must be informed of the reason for their arrest and be brought before a magistrate within 48 hours of their detention, this has not been the case. 
	
	
 The report charged that many people were arrested on the basis of suspicious links with Angolan rebel movement, Unita, and the Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA). Many had disappeared without trace. 
	
	
 Retorted Shivute: "The same and worse happened in the United States after the September 11 attacks and with the war in Afghanistan where special camps were built to detain prisoners of war and 'enemies' of the state. Would these actions be listed as human rights abuses or is it acceptable because they were committed by the US?" 
	
	
 Shivute said Namibia attached "little value" to the latest US rights report as it carried a lot of factual inaccuracies and was a "mere reproduction of unverified and unsubstantiated reports". 
	
	
 He said the report, for instance, claimed that the Swapo publication Namibia Today, the ruling party paper, was a Government-owned magazine. 
	
	
 Shivute also said the report carried a "total confusion" of historical data by claiming that the National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW) was no longer affiliated to the Swapo Party.