Bundestag dodges the word genocide

ONE hundred years after the Herero war against German colonial rule in then “German Southwestafrica”, the German Parliament [Bundestag] has passed a lengthy resolution without once mentioning the word “guilt”.

It also fails to mention the German concentration camps that were built at Swakopmund, Luderitz and other places in 1904. The resolution mainly confirms a previous resolution of 1989 in which the Bundestag stated that Germany had a “special responsibility” towards Namibia.In the new resolution, which was adopted last week in Berlin, the German parliament expressed “deep regret towards the oppressed African peoples”.The resolution further says: “The Herero people continued to exist and could revive and strengthen its culture”.The German parliament, with its Social Democratic (SPD) majority and their coalition partners, the Greens, also touched on Namibian land reform based on the principal of “willing-seller, willing-buyer” in its resolution.It expresses the view that land reform has the potential of offering more people a livelihood in agriculture.The conservatives (Christian Democratic Union) and the liberal party (Free Democratic Party) abstained.During the debate, Hans-Christian Stroebele, a left-wing MP of the Green Party referred to the war of 1904, saying:”The Germans did not only lead a war of extermination, they introduced the first concentration camps in German history.”He said that he would have been in favour of a stronger resolution.An editorial in the national daily Tageszeitung sharply criticised the fact that the German parliament had consistently avoided the term genocide (voelkermord) and had also not offered an apology to Namibians.The editorial regards the resolution as shallow in the context of Chief Kuaima Riruako’s demands for compensation by the Germans in a court of law in the United States – anything that could possibly have justified the Chief’s demands for compensation was deliberately avoided in the resolution.The resolution mainly confirms a previous resolution of 1989 in which the Bundestag stated that Germany had a “special responsibility” towards Namibia.In the new resolution, which was adopted last week in Berlin, the German parliament expressed “deep regret towards the oppressed African peoples”.The resolution further says: “The Herero people continued to exist and could revive and strengthen its culture”.The German parliament, with its Social Democratic (SPD) majority and their coalition partners, the Greens, also touched on Namibian land reform based on the principal of “willing-seller, willing-buyer” in its resolution.It expresses the view that land reform has the potential of offering more people a livelihood in agriculture.The conservatives (Christian Democratic Union) and the liberal party (Free Democratic Party) abstained.During the debate, Hans-Christian Stroebele, a left-wing MP of the Green Party referred to the war of 1904, saying:”The Germans did not only lead a war of extermination, they introduced the first concentration camps in German history.”He said that he would have been in favour of a stronger resolution.An editorial in the national daily Tageszeitung sharply criticised the fact that the German parliament had consistently avoided the term genocide (voelkermord) and had also not offered an apology to Namibians.The editorial regards the resolution as shallow in the context of Chief Kuaima Riruako’s demands for compensation by the Germans in a court of law in the United States – anything that could possibly have justified the Chief’s demands for compensation was deliberately avoided in the resolution.