: Hdipo Hamutenya, secretary for information and pub- licity for the Southwest African People’s Organization (SWAPO) and a member of its Central Committee was in Canada to attend the Canadian Conference in Solidarity with the Liberation Struggles of the Peoples of Southern Africa May 7-9. In a Tribune interview he gives his as- sessment of the conference and outlines the situation today in Namibia. — * * * - Our delegation was impressed by the level of parti- cipation at the conference and its final documents. We saw a wide spectrum of the Canadian people represented there who took part in a thorough-going examination on Canada’s role concerning South Africa and Namibia and the collaborationist policy of the government. _ The conference worked out a plan of action for the further mobilization of. Canadian public opinion in opposition to this collaboration. We believe it helped set the stage to deepen the anti-apartheid campaign in this country. Here, it is most important to continue to raise the level , ‘of people’s political consciousness because only on this basis will Canadians fully understand the role of Cana- dian corporations in southern Africa and speak out against this role. = - This public awareness will make it more difficult for Canada to collaborate with the racist regime which, while it may seem immune to criticism, is not. © Pressure must. grow for Canada to disengage itself om its ties with Pretoria. It’s not aneasy task, but it can Pat ae ~ ‘Contact-Group’ ~ Canada is a member of five western countries which form a so-called “‘Contact Group” formed in 1977 (Canada, USA, Britain, France and the German Federal Republic) to act as a mediator for the settling of the question of Namibian independence. But, after five years, despite their claim that their relations with South Africa would enable them to bring a settlement about, nothing has been achieved. In fact, Pretoria is using, them to legitimize its hold: over Namibia. : ; While the so-called negotiations drag on, the Pretoria. _ Thousands of highly-trained combatants have now brought the liberation struggle to the doorste TRIBUNE PHOTO — MIKE PHILLIPS NAMIBIA’S LIBERATION STRUGGLE GROWS SWAPO carries battle — to country’s heartland regime set up a puppet parliament and placed the institu- tions of the state in the hands of the Turnhalle Alliance. (In an ‘‘election”’ in Dec. 1977, boycotted by SWAPO and condemned by the United Nations, the Turnhalle Alliance took power. A creature of the apartheid regime composed of white settlers and tribal quislings, the Al- liance is being touted as an alternative to SWAPO — Ed) The ‘Contact Group”’ is a thinly-veiled rationale cov- ering collaboration. While ‘‘negotiations’’ stall, South Africa makes every attempt to strengthen its hold on Namibia. The Turnhalle Alliance was installed during the period South Africa was engaged in negotiations. The Alliance received millions of South African Rands, the media is placed at its disposal in its search for political respec- tability. The past four years has seen an intense military — build-up. There are today 100,000 South African soldiers in Namibia, including mercenaries and former Rhode- sian troops — this in a country with less than two million people. Tide Irreversible But the tide cannot be reversed. It is too late. Twenty-two years of the existence of SWAPO has created a strong sense of national consciousness and a strong anti-imperialist orientation among our people. The Namibian people understand the difference be- tween genuine national liberation and neo-colonialism. South Africa has failed to win any support in our country for its ‘‘internal settlement”’ policy. Now the regime is compelled to rely on brute force. It is aclear sign of the failure of South Africa’s military and political attempts to defeat the people’s struggle. Our people are confident that SWAPO and SWAPO alone can and will bring genuine .independence to Namibia and are paying every price to support SWAPO. Terrible Toll The massive presence of the South African army in our country has brought with it untold suffering. The racist troops are killing people daily who are suspected of supporting SWAPO. They are destroying houses and crops in the coun- tryside. They are raping our women almost daily. The rate of repression is very high. Arrests, torture and de- _tention are the order of the day. The presence of a large p of the white regime. © number of mercenaries makes the nature of this repres- sion even more sordid. Struggle Grows Despite all this repression the struggle continues. At the political level our cadres have now taken to under- ground political work and are able to sustain and broaden the liberation struggle. During the past five weeks a dramatic situation has developed. Whereas Pretoria’s claim that because of the military invasion of Angola they have crippled our mili- tary capacity, our combatants have gone on the offen- ' sive deep inside central Namibia. We have moved the struggle from the rural area to the central part of the country which is the heartland of the settler farming activity, thereby bringing the agony of the war situation to the doorstep of the colonial settlers themselves. __ We have moved thousands of highly-trained fighters into what the South Africans now call the ‘‘triangle of death’’ — an area covering the districts of Tsumeb, a copper-mining town, Grootfontein, Otair and Otjivaran- go. This is nearly one-third of the central part of Namibia and a traditional white farming area and mining centre. Our units have cut rail lines and attacked power and petrol stations and forced many settlers to leave their farms for the towns. In this area there are 3,000 indi- vidual white-run farms and it is now calculated each farm would require a platoon of soldiers for defence. The commander of South African forces in Namibia, General Lloyd and the Colonial Governor have been forced to announce that the army is not in a position for the moment to change the situation and that they have been caught unprepared by SWAPO tactics. Local newspapers have shown numbers of helicopters and aircraft brought down by missiles our units have brought into the area. This and the difficulty South Afri- can ground units have in moving about has created prob- lems they did not expect. It has exposed the limits of the South African army's ability to ensure the safety of their settlers. And the settlers are asking: *‘How is it possible with such a vast South African military presence SWAPO is still able to chose the time and place to attack?” This offensive exposes the South African claim that our forces attack from Angola and run to Angola because the area we are fighting in is 3-400 miles from Angola. Price Too High It is becoming clear that for Pretoria the price of colo- nial occupation is becoming higher than whatever bene- fits they seek. The economy is going down; the uncertainty is pre- venting new foreign investment from entering Namibia. There’s been no new investment for the last three to four years. Even multi-nationals which have found new mineral deposits are not prepared to open new operations now. The white farmers are leaving their cattle ranching enterprises with over 20,000 having left the country since 1981. This fact is publicly recorded and admitted in the local press. The maintenance of a huge army is costly — 3. million Rand per day being spent on its military campaign of repression. We are convinced this is a price they cannot continue to pay indefinitely. And, as the African National Con- gress (South Africa) and its military wing intensify their political and military pressure on the enemy, they will be forced to concede. — In this respect we believe we are contributing to the ultimate destruction of that fascist state by delivering crippling blows to its rear. Our final victory will be a profound source of inspiration to the people of South Africa to ensure the final liquidation of the apartheid order in. our region. * * * Hdipo Hamutenya appealed for mobilization to assist the fighting people of Namibia and South Africa — to help feed, clothe and educate many in exile camps. He listed medicines and medical supplies as high on the list of needed materials. He also urged greater efforts to inform Canadians of the reality of South African occupa- tion and the collaboration by Western states with the apartheid regime. ae pcan. PACIFIC TRIBUNE— MAY 21, 1982— Page 9