Windhoek: The families of late liberation heroes Tobias Hainyeko and Brendan Simbwaye have called on the Namibian government to engage its South African counterpart to help locate and recover the remains of the two prominent liberation icons.According to Namibia Press Agency, Hainyeko and Simbwaye were among eight former liberation heroes whose remains were honoured during a reburial ceremony at Heroes' Acre on Monday. However, both were accorded symbolic graves because their remains have never been recovered.Speaking on behalf of the Simbwaye family, Waluka Sibugo said the family would only find closure once the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the former Swapo deputy president were established. 'The family will only be comforted after knowing the truth and finding the final place of disappearance of our fallen hero,' Sibugo said during the ceremony.Simbwaye, who helped establish the Caprivi African National Union in the early 1960s before it merged with the South West Africa People Organ isation (Swapo), was arrested by apartheid South African security forces in 1964. He was later subjected to a secret terrorism trial in Pretoria and disappeared in 1972 under unclear circumstances. His remains have never been found.Sibugo said the family had lived with unanswered questions for decades and urged the government to engage its South African counterpart to establish what happened to Simbwaye. He said the family wanted those who were responsible for Simbwaye's disappearance to provide answers, adding that the truth was important not only for the family but also for future generations. 'After today's honour by the Namibian government, the family will remain with the questions of how, why, when, where and what, because this needs to be told to the young ones first,' Sibugo said.Meanwhile, former police commissioner, Ndahangwapo Kashihakumwa, speaking on behalf of the Hainyeko family, said efforts to locate the remains of the first commander of the South West Africa Liberation Army had been ongoin g since 2012. Hainyeko was killed in combat in 1967 while crossing the Zambezi River in the present-day Zambezi Region. His body was never recovered.Kashihakumwa said the family welcomed the decision to accord Hainyeko a symbolic grave but wanted the government to continue efforts to locate his remains. He said the family believes that South African colonial forces may have removed Hainyeko's body after his death and called for further investigations.The two families expressed gratitude for the national recognition accorded to the two liberation heroes, while stressing that symbolic graves should not mark the end of efforts to establish the whereabouts of their remains.