Be wary of hosting US torture camps

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RENEWED concerns by the United Nations Human Rights Council that the United State Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was planning to relocate its secret prisons to some African countries ought to put our authorities on alert.

Evidence made available by the UN suggests that lack of oversight, political and legal accountability has facilitated illegal activities by intelligence agencies leading to several violations of sharing of signal intelligence and the right to privacy, torture and other inhuman treatment.

Interests shown by the US government in Etosha National Park in the wake of the controversial US state sponsored Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) should not be taken lightly.

The American Government has injected US$305 million into Namibia through the MCA but critics fear that with the strings attached to the funding, Namibia would compromise its sovereignty and undermine domestic political institutions.

The US government’s handouts should not be taken lightly considering recent revelations that the US is expanding its secret detention centres for terror suspects to Mauritania, Ethiopia, some countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

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