Untag soldiers return ‘home’

DURING the period leading up to Namibia’s Independence, Australia alone sent more than 600 soldiers to help the United Nations in ensuring a smooth transition in Namibia between 1989 and 1990.

At a braai hosted by former Untag soldiers in the capital on Friday, Chris Munn, the Australian Charge d’Affaires based in Pretoria, said: “The diggers are here for their pilgrimages to the Namibia they remember and to see the new Namibia. I am sure they are proud to see the signs of development in Windhoek and other parts of the country and they can rightfully claim that they have made a significant contribution to this progress.”

Munn emphasised that despite being deployed to provide transition support, “when the ceasefire broke down at the start of the mission, members of the squadron helped establish assembly points which enabled the mission to continue.

This activity was conducted in the face of hostility from elements of the former colonial power and personal danger arising from the breakdown of the ceasefire”.

At a later stage, a total of 17 members of the Untag construction unit became involved in the election process itself, Munn said, “providing security, transport and logistic support to election officials, monitors, other UN personnel, voters and polling stations”.

This deployment of Australian troops in Namibia was the largest of its kind since the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s, the diplomat said.

On Friday, The Namibian carried a story about Brian van Wyk, a Danish former Untag soldier, who returned to Namibia subsequent to his tour of duty here and later married a Namibian woman.

The couple lives in Denmark with their children.

Van Wyk even changed his surname to that of his wife. According to him, Namibia has been an integral part of his life over the past 25years. He was a tender 19 years old when he landed in the Land of the Brave on the Untag mission.