The Minister of Defence and Veterans Affairs commissioned the exhumation and re-interment committee at the Defence Headquarters in Windhoek.
Before the commissioning, Frans Kapofi instituted and appointed retired Major General Charles Namoloh as Chairperson of the Committee.
Committee members are Retired Brigadier General Solomon Shikongo, Retired Colonel David Ndatipo, Ericas Ndalikokule, Dr. Apollo Bassenero, Elvis Handura, Penofina Eises, and Timoteus Mashuna.
The exhumation and reinterment operation will focus on retrieving the remains of fallen heroes and heroines who sacrificed their lives during the liberation struggle.
The assignment will be a testimony to the government's commitment to honouring liberation heroes and heroines by giving them dignified burials and also preserving the history of national liberation, which eventually brought the independence of Namibia.
The appointment follows a directive from Cabinet for the Defence Ministry to embark on the process after it was announced on the 13th of this month.
"The government has decided that we should try by all means to recover the remains of those comrades that are recoverable that we can recover wherever they are so that eventually a proper interment for their remains is done. As a result of that, our ministry was given the mandate to put up a team of comrades and patriots to go inside the country, especially in the northern operational areas in Namibia," said Kapofi.
He justified the constitution of the committee as credible, citing that some of the committee members participated in battles alongside fallen heroes.
The Chairperson of the Committee, Retired Major General Charles Namoloh, highlighted that the project will be facilitated in accordance with laid-out legal guidance and ethical standards.
He stressed the challenges of locating and identifying some of the unmarked graves.
"But we will also still use a local authority in the area and the traditional and religious; we won't just go in the area and start digging; we go to them, and if they have a tomb there, the grave that they know if they know there is a grave here and we look into our statistics, is not there; we mark it also and map it so that we can also find out who knows it, or who is there, so forth, so they don't show us any other grave, which maybe is not part of the plan, combatants," he said.
The committee, among others, is mandated to report on the existing national sites earmarked for the burial of remains, recommend national sites to be considered in the future for the reburial of remains, and submit a budget proposal for the timely allocation of funds.
So far, there are about four national sites built since independence, namely Heroes' Acre in the Khomas Region, Eenhana Shrine in Ohangwena, Omungulungoombashe in Omusati, and Ondeshifiilwa Monument also in Ohangwena.