
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 21, 1990                   TAG: 9003212207
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA                                 LENGTH: Short

NAMIBIA MARKS INDEPENDENCE

Namibia became the world's newest nation Tuesday, ending 75 years of South African rule as Africa's last colony with traditional tribal dances and choirs singing liberation songs.

The South African flag was lowered for the last time at midnight and the new Namibian flag was raised as thousands of blacks and whites cheered and clapped.

The huge, arid territory of 1.3 million people on Africa's south-west coast was a German colony until it was captured by South Africa during World War I.

Representatives of dozens of nations attending the celebrations were using the occasion for some behind-the-scenes consultations, with the United States, the Soviet Union and others holding an elaborate series of meetings.

Among the foreign guests attending the celebrations are U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze; Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak; the leaders of at least 12 African nations; and the foreign ministers of Britain, West Germany, Romania, Indonesia and other nations.

South Africa agreed in December 1988 to grant independence to Namibia under a regional peace treaty that also calls for Cuba to withdraw its 50,000 soldiers from Angola by mid-1991.

The independence date was chosen to mark the 30th anniversary of the "Sharpeville Massacre," when 69 unarmed demonstrators were shot and killed in South Africa while protesting apartheid laws.

by CNB