The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990.
The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. Namibia had been occupied by South Africa since 1915, first under a League of Nations mandate and later illegally. Since 1966, South African forces had been combating an insurgency by the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), the military wing of the Namibian-nationalist South West African People's Organization (SWAPO). The UN Security Council passed Resolution 435 in 1978, which set out a plan for elections administered by South Africa but under UN supervision and control after a ceasefire. However, only in 1988 were the two parties able to agree to a ceasefire. As UNTAG began to deploy peacekeepers, military observers, police, and political workers, hostilities were briefly renewed on the day the transition process was supposed to begin. After a new round of negotiations, a second date was set and the elections process began in earnest. Elections for the constitutional assembly took place in November 1989. They were peaceful and declared free and fair; SWAPO won a majority of the seats. The new constitution was adopted four months later and it was followed by Namibia's official independence and the successful conclusion of UNTAG.
Louis Alexander Pienaar was a South African lawyer and diplomat. He was the last white Administrator of South-West Africa, from 1985 through Namibian independence in 1990. Pienaar later served as a minister in F W de Klerk's government until 1993. He married Isabel Maud van Niekerk on 11 December 1954.
United Nations Commissioner for South West Africa was a post created by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1966 to assert the UN's direct responsibility for South West Africa which was then under illegal occupation by apartheid South Africa.
The Western Contact Group (WCG), representing three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - France, United Kingdom and United States - and including Canada and West Germany, launched a joint diplomatic effort in 1977 to bring an internationally acceptable transition to independence for Namibia, after a decade of illegal occupation by apartheid of South Africa.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 435, adopted on September 29, 1978, put forward proposals for a cease-fire and UN-supervised elections in South African-controlled South West Africa which ultimately led to the independence of Namibia. Importantly, it established the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) which oversaw the election and the South African withdrawal.
The Transitional Government of National Unity (TGNU), also commonly called the Interim Government, was the interim government of South-West Africa (Namibia) from June 1985 to February 1989.
Parliamentary elections were held in Namibia between 7 and 11 November 1989. These elections were for the Constituent Assembly of Namibia, which, upon independence in March 1990, became the National Assembly of Namibia.
The 1978 Settlement Proposal in Namibia, devised by the Contact Group of Western States, mandated the United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) under United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 to assist a UN Special Representative appointed by the UN Secretary-General 'to ensure the early independence of Namibia through free and fair elections under the supervision and control of the United Nations'.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 431, adopted on July 27, 1978, after recalling resolution 385 (1976), the Council took note of a proposal of a solution to the situation in Namibia and asked the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative for Namibia to ensure the independence of Namibia from South Africa as soon as possible. It also called on all concerned to exert their best efforts to resolve the issue, so that free and fair elections could be held.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 439, adopted on November 13, 1978, after recalling resolutions 385 (1976), 431 (1978), 432 (1978) and 435 (1978), the Council condemned South Africa for its decision to proceed unilaterally with elections in Namibia in contravention of previous resolutions. The Council considered this a clear defiance of the authority of the United Nations.
United Nations Security Council resolution 539, adopted on 28 October 1983, after hearing a report from the Secretary-General and reaffirming resolutions 301 (1971), 385 (1976), 431 (1978), 432 (1978), 435 (1978), 439 (1978) and 532 (1983), the council condemned South Africa's continued occupation of Namibia, then known as South West Africa, and the tension and instability prevailing in southern Africa as a result.
United Nations Security Council resolution 566, adopted on 19 June 1985, after recalling resolutions 269 (1969), 276 (1970), 301 (1971), 385 (1976), 431 (1978), 432 (1978), 435 (1978), 439 (1978), 532 (1983) and 539 (1983), the Council expressed concern at the tension and instability caused the continued occupation of Namibia by South Africa, noting the apartheid policies implemented in the territory and that the territory was used as a springboard for attacks on other southern African countries.
United Nations Security Council resolution 601, adopted on 30 October 1987, after recalling resolutions 269 (1969), 276 (1970), 301 (1971), 385 (1976), 431 (1978), 432 (1978), 435 (1978), 439 (1978), 532 (1983), 539 (1983) and 566 (1985), the council again condemned South Africa for its continued "illegal" occupation of Namibia and its refusal to comply with previous resolutions.
United Nations Security Council resolution 629, adopted unanimously on 16 January 1989, after recalling resolutions 431 (1978), 435 (1978) and 628 (1989), the council noted that the parties to the Brazzaville Protocol agreed that 1 April 1989 be established as the date of the South African withdrawal from Angola and therefore lead the way to the independence of Namibia.
United Nations Security Council resolution 632, adopted unanimously on 16 February 1989, after reaffirming resolutions 431 (1978), 435 (1978) and 629 (1989), the Council endorsed a report by the Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar concerning the United Nations plan for Namibia, reiterating its legal authority over the territory until its independence.
United Nations Security Council resolution 643, adopted unanimously on 31 October 1989, after reaffirming resolutions 435 (1978) and 629 (1989), 632 (1989) and 640 (1989), as well as noting a report by the Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, the council expressed its full intention to implement Resolution 435 of 29 September 1978 regarding the situation in Namibia.
Parliamentary elections were held in South West Africa between 4 and 8 December 1978. These first elections conducted under universal adult suffrage—all previous elections had been Whites-only—were won by the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, which claimed 41 of the 50 seats. The elections were conducted without United Nations (UN) supervision, and in defiance of the 1972 United Nations General Assembly's recognition of the militant South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) as the "sole representative of Namibia's people". The UN henceforth declared the elections null and void. The resulting government, dependent on South African approval for all its legislation, was in power until its dissolution in 1983.
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.
Operation Merlyn was a military operation by the South African Defence Force (SADF), South West African Territorial Force (SWATF) and South West African Police (SWAPOL) during the South African Border War and Angolan Civil War in April 1989. The aim of the operation was to prevent the incursion of PLAN (SWAPO) insurgents into South West Africa/Namibia from bases in Angola. These incursions were in violation of a ceasefire which came into effect on 1 April 1989 via the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 435 and the Tripartite Accord. Initially, these PLAN incursions were tackled by South West African police units and eventually by SADF and SWATF units, released to assist the police having been confined to their bases by the peace agreements. These incursions and the conflict that occurred ended after hastily arranged talks resulted in the Mount Etjo Declaration and an eventual ceasefire.
