Tuliameni Kalomoh

Tuliameni Kalomoh is Special Advisor on Foreign Affairs to the President, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Namibia.

Ambassador Tuliameni Kalomoh was born at Onamutai, Oshana Region in 1948. He started lower primary school at St. Cutherbert’s Parish, Onamutai and continued at Christ the King, Onekwaya West from 1962 to 1966: both schools were run by the Anglican Church in Namibia. Ambassador Kalomoh attended primary school from 1967 to 1969 at St Mary’s and High School in 1970. He, together with other students were expelled following involvement in a dispute within the Church leadership. Following his expulsion from school, Ambassador Kalomoh went to work as a time clerk for Metal Box Company in Walvis Bay from 1970 to 1971. He was arrested in 1971 and deported to what was then called Owamboland, due to involvement in SWAPO Youth League political activities. Ambassador Kalomoh joined SWAPO in 1964 In July 1971, Ambassador Kalomoh joined many SWAPO leaders and thousands of students throughout the Northern region in a demonstration at the Ondangwa Native Commission offices welcoming the judgment of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague, declaring South African occupation of Namibia illegal and ordering it to withdraw its administration from the territory. In 1972, he was among SWAPO organizers of a mass demonstration at Ondangwa to welcome Dr Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations who visited Namibia to consult the South African Government and internal SWAPO leaders on the implementation of the ICJ ruling. From 1972 to 1973, Ambassador Kalomoh worked as a teller for the Bantu Investment Cooperation Bank (BBK) at Oshakati, and branch manager at Onesi, Ohangwena and Ondangwa, respectively. His participation with thousands of SWAPO members at a demonstration in August 1973, led by the late Mr. John Ya Otto in solidarity with SWAPO leaders who were being detained for allegedly having violated the emergency proclamation R17 (which prohibited the holding of public meetings or a gathering of more than five people) led to his detention at Ondangwa overcrowded police cells for 4 months. While in detention, Ambassador Kalomoh was allowed to pursue his studies for Form III through correspondence with a South African distant education school and wrote examinations at Ongwediva in November 1973. Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed by Anglican Bishop Richard Wood as Secretary and Treasurer for St Mary’s Hospital, Odibo in January 1974 until August 1974, when the Hospital was closed down by then South West Africa White Administration, after some teaching and nursing staff and students at Odibo left for Zambia to join the liberation struggle. In August 1974, Ambassador Kalomoh left for Zambia. In 1975, Ambassador Kalomoh was assigned to the Office of the Administrative Secretary of SWAPO in Lusaka, the late Moses Garoeb as an Administrative Assistant. From 1976 to 1981, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed SWAPO Chief Representative to West Africa based in Dakar, Senegal. From 1981 to 1986, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed the first SWAPO Chief Representative to France following the victory of the Socialist Party President Francois Mitterrand who invited SWAPO and ANC to open offices in France. From 1986 to 1990, he was appointed first SWAPO Ambassador to India with full diplomatic privileges and immunities when that country became the first to accord SWAPO full diplomatic status. During Namibia’s independence election campaign in 1989, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed senior advisor to the Election Director in the northern region, Mzee Simon Kaukungua based at Oshakati. He was also appointed Chief Counting Agent for SWAPO during counting and tabulation of election results at Ongwediva. Since the Northern Region constituted an important SWAPO political power base the results from the Ongwediva Counting Center proved critical for the SWAPO victory in the 1989 elections. After independence and, under the leadership of the first Minister of Foreign Affairs, Theo-Ben Gurirab, Ambassador Kalomoh was assigned, with others, to establish the new Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was appointed Under-Secretary for Political and Economic Affairs. In that capacity, Ambassador Kalomoh accompanied Prime Minister Hage Geingob to the United Nations to attend a Special Session of the UN General Assembly for Namibia’s admission to the World Body in April 1990. He also accompanied President Sam Nujoma to SADC Summit in Lusaka, Zambia for Namibia’s admission to SADC and to the Organization for African Unity (OAU) summit in Addis Abba, Ethiopia for Namibia’s admission. In 1991, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed Namibia’ s first Ambassador to the United States of America with concurrent accreditation as High Commissioner to Canada, till 1996. In 1996, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1997, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed Special Representative of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to Liberia. He organized the elections in Liberia that ended the seven-year bloody civil conflict in that country. On completion of the Liberian mission, Ambassador Kalomoh returned to his position of Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 1998, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Between 1999 and 2000, he was appointed Acting Minister when Minister Gurirab was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly. He attended many summit meetings of SADC, OAU, later AU, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Commonwealth and the UN General Assembly, either accompanying the President or leading the Namibian delegation. From 1998 to 1999, Ambassador Kalomoh led Namibia’s delegation to peace talks on DRC in Lusaka involving the DRC government, and the Rebel Movements on the one hand, the government of Rwanda and Uganda supporting the rebels and those of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe supporting the government of DRC on the other hand. The talks culminated in the signing of the Lusaka Protocol of August 1999 which ushered in the peace process in DRC and the deployment of the UN peace-keeping force in 2000. In 2002, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Political Affairs responsible for Africa and the Security Council. He sat in all key meetings of the Security Council including the one that had failed to endorse an American/British draft resolution that sought Security Council approval for the invasion of Iraq. Ambassador Kalomoh led numerous mediation missions to conflict areas in Africa including Burundi, Chad, Central African Republic, Somalia, Sudan, Cote-d' Ivoire. He helped the Secretary-General to successfully mediate a territorial dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria and helped the two countries implement the ruling by the International Court of Justice which favored Cameroon. Ambassador Kalomoh also helped the Secretary-General mediate a territorial dispute between Gabon and Equatorial-Guinea but without success. In 2005, Ambassador Kalomoh led a UN inter-departmental delegation to Burundi for consultation with political leaders, civil society representatives and ordinary citizens on the feasibility of establishing a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute those accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and to promote reconciliation. His last mediation mission was to Somalia to help the Federal Transition Government reconcile with moderate elements of the Union of Islamic Courts. The mission was unsuccessful because the parties were not ready to compromise. Ambassador Kalomoh retired from the United Nations in May 2007 at the end of Secretary-General Kofi Anna’s mandate. In March 2008, Ambassador Kalomoh was appointed Special Advisor on Foreign Affairs to the President, Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ambassador Kalomoh graduated, with a Diploma from the Indian Academy of International Law and Diplomacy in New Delhi which he attended from 1986 to 1989. He received military training at PLAN’s Tobias Hainyeko Training Center in Lubango, Angola in 1980. Ambassador Kalomoh likes reading history, politics, and economics. He is married and has two grown sons.

See also

• Bantu Investment Corporation Act
• CODESA

External links

• UN.org
• Allafrica.com
• United States Equant Inc
• Namibian.com.na
• Namibian.com.na