WINDHOEK, Namibia -- British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher landed in Namibia Saturday, crowning the implementation of a U.N. independence program for Africa's last colony that ends a century of colonial rule and silences a long guerrilla war for liberation.
Thatcher added a stop in Namibia to her four-nation Africa tour as the 10-year-old U.N. Security Council Resolution 435 went into effect Saturday and a cease-fire between rebels of the South West Africa People's Organization and South African troops was declared.
The British premier's jet touched down at Windhoek's airport shortly after 12:30 p.m. from Blantrye, Malawi, the final stop on her tour, an air traffic controller reported.
In a tense moment only hours before her arrival, riot police wearing tear gas masks and backed by a dozen trucks blocked some 5,000 trade unionist from marching downtown from the Katatura black township to protest government plans for privatization of government-run services.
Chanting 'SWAPO will win' and 'A Luta continua (the struggle continues),' the crowd wearing multi-colored clothing representing SWAPO's blue, red and green flag was halted on the main thoroughfare leading into Windhoek.
Officials of the South West Africa Police -- responsible for normal maintentance of law and order during the transition period -- refused to allow the march to continue, and several march organizers were angered over the absence of troops of the United Nations Transition Assistance Group.
After a 30-minuite standoff and futile negotiations, the crowd returned to Katatura where SWAPO had scheduled a rally celebrating independence.
'They would not listen to us. They have never listened to us. Where is UNTAG?' said trade union marshall George Benjamin.
Rev. Josiuah Nashongo, a Lutheran priest, said, 'We expect the UNTAG soldiers to be here. They should stop this sort of thing.'
At dawn Saturday, a formal cease-fire between South African troops and SWAPO guerrillas took effect, following the confinement of an estimated 25,000 South African Defense Force troops and 18,000 Namibian security forces to their bases.
On the eve of the implementation of U.N. Resolution 435, the chief U.N. administrator, Martti Ahtisaari, arrived to take up his post.
At the same time, along the northern Namibia-Angola border, Angola, Cuba and South Africa conducted a prisoner exchange involving 13 Angolans and three Cubans for a South African rifleman wounded and captured in a skirmish 13 months ago.
Foreign Minister Roelof 'Pik' Botha hailed the event as a symbol of 'renewed hope' resulting from the U.S.-brokered agreement between the three countries on South African acceptance of Namibian independence in exchange for a withdrawal of some 50,000 Cuban troops from neighboring Angola. The accord was signed in December.
Ahtisaari was greeted on his arrival by Namibia's South African-appointed Administrator-General Louis Pienaar, whose administrative decisions are subject to review and acceptance by the U.N. chief.
Pienaar's authority will come to an end following certification of the results of a scheduled Nov. 1 election for a constituent assembly that will draft the nation's constitution and lead to full independence provisionally set for April 1, 1989.
The $46l million peacekeeping operation includes 4,650 international troops, 500 civilian police from 15 nations, 760 clerical and administrative personnnel, 620 poll monitors and some 800 Namibians who will be hired locally, mainly as interpreters.
About 1,000 soldiers from 20 nations already are in place. The major battalions from Kenya, Finland and Malaysia are expected by the end of April.
The mineral-rich country is twice the size of California but has a population of just 1.3 million people, including some 80,000 whites of mostly German and South African descent.
It was made a German protectorate in 1884 and surrendered to South Africa under a League of Nations mandate.
