The Australian Services Contingent was the Australian Army contribution to the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) peacekeeping mission to Namibia in 1989 and 1990. Australia sent two contingents of over 300 engineers each to assist the Special Representative of the Secretary General, Martti Ahtisaari, in overseeing free and fair elections in Namibia for a Constituent Assembly in what was the largest deployment of Australian troops since the Vietnam War.
The Australian mission was widely reported as successful. Colonel John Crocker, commander of the second Australian contingent (2ASC), wrote that the November 1989 election was UNTAG's raison d'être and observed that "the Australian contingent's complete and wide-ranging support was critical to the success of that election and hence the mission – a fact that has been acknowledged at the highest level in UNTAG". Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Secretary-General of the United Nations, wrote to Gareth Evans (Australia's Foreign Minister) about the "remarkable contribution made by the Australian military and electoral personnel", saying that their "dedication and professionalism had been widely and deservedly praised". Although a total of 19 UN personnel lost their lives in Namibia, the two Australian contingents achieved their mission without sustaining any fatalities – one of the few military units in UNTAG to do so.
Overall, the UNTAG mission assisted Namibia in transitioning to a democratic government after the racial segregation of the apartheid system. The military forces did not fire a shot during the operation, and Mays called it "possibly the most successful UN peacekeeping operation ever fielded"; Hearn called it "one of the major successes of the United Nations". Almost 20 years later, in a message to the annual session of the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization on 28 February 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted that "facilitating this process" constituted "one of the proudest chapters of our Organization's history".
Background
History of conflict
Southwest Africa has a rich history encompassing colonisation, war and genocide. The first European to set foot on Namibian soil was the Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão in 1485. Over the next 500 years, the country was colonised by the Dutch, English and Germans. Namibia was a German colony (German South-West Africa) from 1884 until its annexation by South Africa during World War I. After the war, it was mandated to South Africa by the League of Nations. After World War II the United Nations (UN) asked South Africa to place Namibia under UN trusteeship, but South Africa refused. Legal arguments continued until 1966 when the UN General Assembly resolved to end the mandate, declaring that henceforth South-West Africa was the direct responsibility of the UN.
At the height of the Cold War in 1965, conflict escalated across the border with the Cuban intervention in Angola. Cuba formed an alliance with the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) (), which led to the deployment of more than 25,000 Cuban soldiers to the region in the Angolan War of Independence.
The next year the Namibian War of Independence began when the South-West Africa People's Organisation's (SWAPO) military wing – the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN) – began guerrilla attacks on South African forces, infiltrating from bases in Zambia. The first attack was the battle at Omugulugwombashe on 26 August, and the war was a classic insurgent-counterinsurgent operation. PLAN initially established bases in northern Namibia; they were later forced out of the country by the South African Defence Force (SADF), subsequently operating from bases in southern Angola and Zambia. The intensity of cross-border conflict escalated, becoming known as the South African Border War and the Angolan Bush War.
The principal protagonists were the SADF and the PLAN. Other groups involved included the South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) and National Union for Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) (both aligned with the SADF) and the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) and Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (both aligned with SWAPO). The South African-aligned forces consisted of regular army (SADF), South West African Police forces and the South West Africa Police Counter-Insurgency Unit (SWAPOL-COIN), including the paramilitary-trained SWAPOL police counter-insurgency unit known as Koevoet.
From a Namibian perspective, the nature of the closely intertwined Angolan War of Independence, Namibian War of Independence and South African Border War was typically cross-border conflict. This was overshadowed by two large-scale Cuban military interventions in the Angolan War of Independence. The first was in November 1975 (on the eve of Angola's independence), which further intensified with the escalation of the Angolan Civil War in 1985. In that conflict, South Africa provided support across the northern border to UNITA. In opposition, the Soviet Union financially backed an estimated two motorised infantry divisions of Cuban troops in a Soviet-led the People's Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) offensive against UNITA in what became known as the second Cuban intervention in Angola. In September 1987, Cuban forces came to the defence of the besieged Angolan Army (FAPLA) and stopped the advance of the SADF at the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale (the largest battle in Africa since World War II). General Magnus Malan wrote in his memoirs that this campaign marked a great victory for the SADF. Nelson Mandela disagreed; Cuito Cuanavale, he asserted, "was the turning point for the liberation of our continent—and of my people—from the scourge of apartheid". This battle led to UN Security Council Resolution 602 of 25 November 1987, demanding the SADF's unconditional withdrawal from Angola by 10 December. When the UN force deployed to Namibia in April 1989, there were 50,000 Cuban troops in Angola.
During the 20-year war the SADF mounted many cross-border operations against PLAN bases, some of which extended into Angola. SADF units frequently remained in southern Angola to intercept PLAN combatants on their way south, forcing PLAN to move to bases far from the Namibian border. Most PLAN insurgency operations took the form of small raids on political activists, armed propaganda activity, recruitment, raids on white settlements and disruption of essential services.
United Nations Transition Assistance Group
The process leading to Namibia's independence began with UN General Assembly Resolution 2145 (XXI) of 27 October 1966. This was followed by the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 264, adopted on 20 March 1969. In that resolution the UN assumed direct responsibility for the territory and declared the continued presence of South Africa in Namibia illegal, calling upon the Government of South Africa to withdraw immediately. International negotiations for a peaceful solution to the Namibian problem increased. In December 1978, in what was known as the Brazzaville Protocol, South Africa, Cuba and Angola formally accepted UN Security Council Resolution 435 outlining a blueprint for Namibian independence. The protocol envisioned a phased withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola over a two-year period, set 1 April 1989 as the date for the resolution's implementation and planned to reduce South African forces in Namibia to 1,500 by June 1989. The resolution established UNTAG, approving a report by the Secretary-General and outlining its objective: "the withdrawal of South Africa's illegal administration from Namibia and the transfer of power to the people of Namibia with the assistance of the United Nations". Resolution 435 authorised a total of 7,500 military personnel as UNTAG's upper limit.
It was not until 1988 that South Africa agreed to implement the resolution, signing the Tripartite Accord (an agreement between Angola, Cuba and South Africa) at UN headquarters in New York City. The accord recommended that 1 April 1989 be set as the date for implementation of Resolution 435, and was affirmed by the Security Council on 16 January 1989. As Hearn noted, "The first characteristic of peacekeeping is that the consent of the disputants must be secured before a force is deployed". With the accord in place (principally with South Africa), UNTAG was then formally established in accordance with Resolution 632 on 16 February 1989.
The key participants in the UN process were the South African government (represented in Namibia by the Administrator General) and the UN. Hearn wrote that South Africa had a "desire for a smooth transition"; this resulted in negotiations occurring locally (between the Special Representative and the Administrator General), directly with the South African government in Pretoria and at the UN (via the Secretary General and Security Council). The outcome of these negotiations with South Africa included draft electoral laws (enabling free and fair elections) and the disbanding of the Koevoet force. The elections were carried out by the South African Administrator General, under UN supervision. The UNTAG operation ultimately involved over 100 countries, the highest ever for a UN operation. The UN had a high level of credibility, and were recognised as the legitimate body to bring independence to Namibia.
Australian political context In the Official History of Australian Peacekeeping, Humanitarian and Post-Cold War Operations, author David Horner stated that the Australian government led by Robert Menzies was loath to criticise South Africa during the 1950s. At that time Australia generally opposed anti-colonial movements (which were often supported by the Soviets or China), believing them part of a worldwide communist offensive. Indeed, as late as 1961 Australia (and Britain) abstained from a vote to condemn South Africa in the UN.
It was not until 1962 that Australia voted for a UN resolution condemning South Africa for its actions in South-West Africa, a change in policy led by External Affairs Minister Garfield Barwick. Initially in opposition, until he was Prime Minister Gough Whitlam was a vocal advocate of independence for Namibia. Over the following two decades, Australia played a small (but significant) role in supporting Namibian independence. Political leaders from both benches of Parliament, including Prime Ministers Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, were active internationally in their support of independence for Namibia while in office. As a result, Australia was involved in the UN process almost from the start. In 1972 Australia voted in favour of a UN trust fund, and two years later it was elected to the UN Council for Namibia. Australia pledged support for UNTAG at the inception of the UN plan for Namibia with Resolution 435 in September 1978, and made an important contribution to UN deliberations about Namibia while a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 1985–1986.