Present at the Birth: Shahida Azfar

One seldom, if ever, gets a chance to witness a moment of celebration in history. One such moment was the Independence of South West Africa (Namibia) from apartheid South Africa in 1990 which I was privileged to be a part of. It was the last remaining nation in the world to gain independence after a brutal armed struggle waged for several decades by the disenfranchised majority black population against a brutal minority white regime. The UN brokered agreement was to commence on 1 April 1989 as per UN resolution 435 in which a UN peacekeeping force would be sent to monitor the election, and UNHCR and WFP would support the reintegration of the returning fighters. UNICEF had no role during this transition. However, just a few months before the start of the transition, President Nujoma, President of SWAPO, the liberation movement, came to see Jim Grant and requested the presence of UNICEF on day one of the transition and not day one of Independence. President Nujoma’s view was that during the transition, UNICEF should look after the returnees’ children till they took charge.

I was designated as UNICEF Representative just before the transition and was charged to lead UNICEF’s support program as requested by President Nujoma. There was no way UNICEF could have a de jure role in the transition process as per the UN resolution. What could UNICEF do? The only possibility was to link ourselves with UNHCR in some way. With much difficulty, I got an appointment with UNHCR’s Deputy High Commissioner. Initially, he was not supportive, quoting resolution 435. The only way I could convince him was that UNICEF would go to Namibia under UNHCR and not with its separate identity. Having agreed to this approach, he said the team was already in Angola enroute to Namibia. I asked him to inform them that I would join them in Angola and flew straight to Luanda. There I was joined by the WFP Representative who had a designated role during the transition and hence was much welcomed. UNICEF had to carve its own role and place. Even to get to Windhoek was a struggle as the UNHCR team left without us. There was a tremendous rush for flights as UN peacekeepers comprising158 nations had to be in place before 1 April.

Once in Windhoek we had no counterparts designated. UNICEF could not work with the apartheid government. After considerable thought we decided to partner with churches, especially the Lutheran church that had a large following and organizational setup. UNICEF’s support plan for relief, rehabilitation goods and services was developed with the SWAPO team and the churches.

Just prior to transition, I returned to HQ to assemble the team for Namibia. With extraordinary and overwhelming support from UNICEF’s high command led by Dr. Jolly including Dr. Nyi Nyi, Manou Assadi, Fouad Kronfol, Marta Mauras and Mary Racelis I was allowed to handpick the team. This was only possible as it was designated a mission since there was no country program. Even the budget was defined through extraordinary measures. Namibia was given special attention by UNICEF because of the tremendous suffering endured by Namibians who were also denied their rights under the brutal apartheid regime of several decades of South Africa.

However the UN transition plan almost collapsed when some SWAPO fighters crossed into Namibia with their arms. It took the genius of Martti Ahtisaari, the SRSG for Namibia to put it back on track.

During transition, with no office space, the UNICEF team set to work in my hotel room till we secured a room in the UNTAG premises. With UNICEF’s legendary efficiency, supplies and equipment were received and delivered in record time to the returnees by the churches. However, there were some challenging moments. The returnees had requested family planning supplies. Since UNICEF does not provide such support, UNFPA obliged by diverting supplies from another country. No sooner had UNICEF distributed them than there was a hue and cry with newspaper articles stating “UNICEF supports SWAPO and showing Fred Eckert, the spokesperson of Ahtisaari, sitting on a huge pile of blown condoms, in red, blue and green, the colors of SWAPO. Soon my explanation was called by Ahtisaari’s office and by Martin Mogwanja, my desk officer in the Africa Section as Mr. Grant had been called by the Vatican. Firstly, I had no idea that the UNFPA condoms came in colors that coincided with SWAPO colors and secondly they could not all be used together to reflect the SWAPO flag. The Vatican was informed that family planning supplies were provided by UNFPA, and not UNICEF.

The other challenging moment came when we started distributing agricultural implements to returnees to start planting and rebuilding their lives. We had barely initiated this when there was an outcry by the white controlled media that UNICEF was arming SWAPO “with photos of pangas, machetes and other traditional agricultural implements”. We hastily withdrew all these supplies from the distribution points and stored them in safe warehouses till after independence.The rest is history. SWAPO swept the election. The electric moment was watching the flag of South Africa coming down and the flag of Namibia being raised as reflected in the faces of De Klerk and President Nujoma. The ceremony was witnessed by several African Presidents, Prime Ministers, world dignitaries including Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, President Arafat of PLO, and President Mandela of ANC, who was just released from Robben Island after 26 years and who I had the privilege of meeting for the first time at the private residence of President Nujoma.

 

No account of UNICEF Namibia is complete without a salute to UNICEF Namibia’s dream team during the transition. Together the small team made an invaluable contribution to the start of development planning of a young nation and to fly the flag of UNICEF high.

UNICEF Namibia continued to be recognized and respected by all as an invaluable partner of the Government and the people of Namibia in the service of children of this newly Independent nation.