Over de grens

Helicopters take off on slightly yellowed archival footage. Soldiers from ‘The States’ leave for ‘Nam’ to fight the Red Peril. Familiar images, only this time it involves South Africans who are fighting the liberation army SWAPO and the ANC in Namibia. From 1987 to 1997, the Koevoet company was active in Namibian Ovambo Land. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the apartheid regime made more victims in the neighbouring countries than in South Africa itself. Director Saskia Vredeveld, born in Cape Town, managed to persuade four white Koevoet veterans to appear in front of her camera. Their problems after returning to the civilian society are also familiar. Since Vietnam, it is called ‘post-traumatic stress disorder’: the first couple of years after the war everything seems to be alright, but then up the aggression, the paranoid thoughts and the nightmares crop up. Whereas one veteran decides to co-operate with the Truth Commission in all honesty, the other unashamedly earns a living by selling mine-tracking dogs.