NAMIBIA FACES SURGE IN ORGANISED CRIME

Windhoek -- The face of crime in Namibia is changing - shifting from being
typically violent crime by individuals to an upsurge in transnational
organised crime.

The Police revealed yesterday that over the past year drug trafficking in
particular had picked up.

Although the Police said there had been a slight decrease in violent crimes
during 2003, murder, rape and armed robbery continued to pose a serious
threat to individuals.

During 2003, 788 people were murdered - slightly more than 2002, when 768
people were killed.

This figure ranks Namibia about seventh among countries with the highest
murder rate per 100 000 people.

South Africa is the African country with the highest murder rate, and
second in the world.

Addressing the business community and the media in Windhoek, Deputy Head of
the Police Criminal Investigation Department Deputy Commissioner Gerson
Naweseb said the Police had detected increasing amounts of drugs entering
the country from its neighbours with cannabis, cocaine, heroin and in
smaller amounts, mandrax being the main drugs.

During the past three months, the Police have made two drug busts,
confiscating cocaine and dagga with a collective street value of more than
N$10 million.

He said traffickers had formed cross-border syndicates - and had changed
their tactics to increasingly using women as couriers.

In general, Naweseb said, there appeared to be a lot of cross-border
criminal co-operation to teach one another the art of committing successful
crimes.

More sexually-related crime was also reported last year with just over a 1
000 cases of rape reported to Women and Child Protection Units countrywide,
compared to 814 the previous year.

Police Spokesperson Deputy Commissioner Hophni Hamufungu said that the
Police were making strides in curbing cross-border crime and meetings were
held in South Africa last week to discuss trends in organised crime.

Naweseb added that the Police had managed to crack down on motor vehicle
theft and that the number of stolen vehicles had continued to decline from
2 895 in 2000 to 796 in 2001 and 478 in 2002, to last year's figure of 351.

But, he said, Namibia remained a transit point for stolen cars throughout
the region.

Naweseb said the Police were making daily arrests of people attempting to
cross the South African and Angolan borders to sell stolen vehicles.

However, returning the stolen vehicles to Namibia - especially from Angola
- - the Police say, is still a subject for much negotiation.

Stock theft numbers, however, increased during the last year from 2 974 in
2002 to 3 201 in 2003.

But reported housebreakings decreased by about 500 cases during the last
year, from 8 508 in 2002.

Police officers said it was difficult to say whether crime in general was
on the increase in Namibia or whether statistics reflected a greater
willingness on the part of the public to report crime and could mean an
especially fruitful year for Police in detecting more incidents.

During 2003, 85 650 incidents were reported to the Police countrywide, up
from 83 375 in 2002.

As many as 91 300 cases were resolved during 2002 (this includes cases
reported during that time period and unresolved cases carried over from
previous years), compared to 81 133 cleared the following year.

Naweseb and Hamufungu said that the Namibian Police were faced with many
frustrations in doing their job because of a limited budget, high public
demand for service and not enough human and technical resources.

"Policing cannot succeed unless those who are being policed are involved,"
said Hamufungu, "the Police can only succeed if the public are on our side."

Added Naweseb, "Combating crime involves the public even if it means just
reporting crime.

Crime has far-reaching consequences for the economy, tourism, investment
and the well-being of our own citizens."