Posted on 08/29/2004 6:06:19 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
THE world's notorious Chinese Mafia, regarded in some circles as a scion of the Chinese Triad, who are extremely dangerous and even feared by other criminal organisations, has reared its ugly head in Namibia in the form of spine-chilling violence, according to several local Chinese nationals residing in Namibia.
A number of grave and vicious crimes involving Chinese nationals have been chronicled over the past few years in the local media.
Now a man regarded as dangerous and widely sus-pected as the Capo di Capi, or rather the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Chinese Mafia, by one of his victims, Lian Ying Ma, is awaiting trial and was to apply for bail in Windhoek yesterday.
But outside the courtroom, and of course invisible to the suspect, a lone Chinese demonstrator vigorously protested against the granting of bail.
Meanwhile, some fear-stricken members of the Chinese business community have warned about serious repercussions if the Govern-ment does not control the rise in criminal activities targeted against some investors in the country.
"If the Government does not clear the investment climate, big investors will leave," said a representative of the business community yesterday.
The representative, who asked for anonymity, fearing action from the suspected criminals, known as the "Chinese Mafia," said over 50 Chinese nationals have since the beginning of the year been brutalised, beaten up, shot at, robbed, assaulted and kidnapped, while some were even threatened with death, and interestingly no action has been forthcoming from law enforcement agents.
Yu Jin, who is currently in police custody for dealing in heroin and contravening customs and excise regula-tions, the merchandising Act, and for fraud, is said to be the ringleader of the Chinese Mafia in Namibia, according to Lian Ying Ma.
He was arrested early this month and may apply for bail on Friday, following the adjournment of his appearan-ce yesterday.
The visibly disturbed Chinese national who was at court said: "Money talks in Namibia. Laws are not fol-lowed. Tomorrow they will rob the banks."
He said some of the Chi-nese Mafia get arrested a number of times but they "pay their way out". He added that members of the group have neither investments nor permits. The only identities they have on them are expired passports.
"They have no invest-ments and cannot give jobs to others, yet they remain in the country," he said.
He said the group almost "controls the country" because victims of crime cannot complain because of the death threats made against them.
However, police spokes-person, Deputy Commis-sioner Hophni Hamufungu, could not comment much because the case is ongoing and did not want to jeopardise the investigations.
He said the group, if it exists, could not be called the Mafia because "a Mafia group is something very well orga-nised. It's a family type of organisation who swear to loyalty," he said.
He added that there was a perception among the Chi-nese themselves that there were people harassing them but they could not be called the Mafia.
"If there are, we don't know about them yet," he added.
Tired of the criminal activities, some members of the Chinese community have written a letter addressed to the Government in which they detailed the activities of some of the alleged Chinese Mafia.
The letter in part accuses some of the so-called Chinese Mafia of violating the law by gun robbery, kidnappings, raping, extorting, organising women to prostitute, traf-ficking in narcotics and ciga-rettes in Namibia.
"These actions seriously jeopardise the public security in Namibia and cause grievous injury to Namibian citizens and the Chinese nationals' lives, and security of their property."
The letter further says that while their nationals came to Namibia for investments and studies, they were harmed by the Chinese Mafia's acti-vities.
The letter also indicates that some gang members have since 2002 allegedly commit-ted five crimes relating to shooting Chinese nationals, damage to property, house-breaking and kidnapping with unlicensed guns.
Yesterday, a lady that was allegedly kidnapped at gunpoint in June at a local hotel and casino, was at the Windhoek magistrate's court to protest a bail application of Yu Jin.
She said, amid sobs, that crime was rampant among Chinese nationals.
She accused officials of taking bribes and not caring about the lives of the victims. "They are arrested but every time they go out on bail, or their cases end up being thrown out," said Lian Ying Ma.
"No money no life. Too much of this is happening in Namibia," she added.
Other allegations against the alleged Chinese Mafia are threats they make to fellow citizens.
"They make false statements to the police, they arrest us and we have to pay thousands to get out," the representative of the business community said.
He claimed that they cheat the business people because of communication problems. "We can't speak proper English," he added.
The wheel chair-bound Yu Jin is married to a Namibian. Some Chinese call his mar-riage a "marriage of convenience", to enable him to stay in the country.
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