-3- 2.5 The authors submit that the Government of Namibia did not recognize their independence and the return to the status quo ante, but expropriated all communal land of the community through application of schedule 5 of the Constitution, which reads: (1) All property of which the ownership or control immediately prior to the date of independence vested in the Government of the Territory of South West Africa, or in any Representative Authority constituted in terms of the Representative Authorities Proclamation, 1980 (Proclamation AG 8 of 1990) or in the Government of Rehoboth, or in any other body, statutory or otherwise, constituted by or for the benefit of any such Government or Authority immediately prior to the date of independence, or which was held in trust for or on behalf of the Government of an independent Namibia, shall vest in or be under the control of the Government of Namibia. ...” According to the counsel, this has had the effect of annihilating the means of subsistence of the community, since communal land and property was denied. 2.6 On 22 June 1991, the Rehoboth people organized general elections for a Captain, Council and Assembly according to the Paternal Laws. The new bodies were entrusted with protecting the communal properties of the people at all cost. Subsequently, the Rehoboth Baster Community and its Captain initiated a case against the Government of Namibia before the High Court. On 22 October 1993 the Court recognized the community’s locus standi. Counsel argues that this implies the recognition by the Court of the Rehoboth Basters as a people in its own right. On 26 May 1995, the High Court however rejected the community’s claim to the communal property. On 14 May 1996, the Supreme Court rejected the Basters’ appeal. With this, it is submitted that all domestic remedies have been exhausted. 2.7 On 28 February 1995, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol thereto entered into force for Namibia. The complaint 3.1 Counsel submits that the Government continues to confiscate the assets of the Rehoboth Basters, and that the Captain and other leaders and organizations were evicted from and deprived of the Captain’s residence, the administrative offices, the community hall, the communal land and of the assets of the Rehoboth Development Corporation. Counsel submits that this policy endangers the traditional existence of the community as a collective of mainly cattle raising farmers. He explains that in times of drought (as at the time when the communication was submitted) the community needs communal land, on which pasture rights are given to members of the community on a rotating basis. The expropriation of the communal land and the consequential privatization of it, as well as the overuse of the land by inexperienced newcomers to the area, has led to bankruptcy for many community farmers, who have had to slaughter their animals. As a consequence, they cannot pay their interests on loans granted to them by the Development Corporation (which used to be communal property but has now been seized by the Government), their houses are then sold to the banks and they find themselves homeless.