Germans to debate Herero genocide

THE German parliament is to debate the genocide and war atrocities committed against the Herero and Nama communities during the German colonial period between 1904 and 1908.

The secretariat of the Berlin parliament (Bundestag) has informed the Left Party that its application to table a motion in this regard was successful. The debate will start early this month.Herero Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako, who tabled a similar motion in the National Assembly in Windhoek last September, is expected to attend the first session of the Bundestag on the topic.”We are very happy about this favourable decision,” Frank Renken, a spokesperson of the Left Party at the Bundestag, told The Namibian from Berlin.According to Renken, the Left Party had also sent a letter to Prime Minster Nahas Angula to inform the Namibian Government that the debate would take place.The letter was sent via the Namibian Embassy in Berlin.However, Penda Namuhuja, special assistant to the Prime Minister, said the letter had not yet arrived.”I am unaware of it,” Namuhuja said last week, when approached by The Namibian.The Left Party’s motion requests the Berlin parliament to call on the federal government of Germany “to accept its historical responsibility and to recognise the right to reparations of the Herero and Nama peoples for the genocide” perpetrated by the German Schutztruppe (colonial troops) on these people from 1904 to 1908 and to “inform the Namibian Government of its readiness to enter into an open dialogue about reconciliation and reparations” for those groups.It further requests that German companies or their legal successors which profited from forced labour and land expropriations in then German South West Africa should be involved appropriately in the payment of compensation to those groups.”Although the consequences of Germany’s campaign of annihilation are still present in Namibia’s social reality, no succeeding German state up to now has signalled its readiness to make reparations.As the legal successor to the German Empire, the Federal Republic of Germany, too, has unfortunately failed to meet its historical responsibilities with respect to the descendants of the victims of the genocide,” the motions said.The Left Party argues that the Herero people “were compelled” to take legal action in 2001 against German companies and the government in Berlin by demanding compensation.”Acknowledgement of the genocide and a political decision by the Federal Government to open a dialogue regarding material reparations would render the legal dispute superfluous,” according to the Left Party.On October 26 2006 Namibia’s National Assembly voted unanimously to adopt Chief Riruako’s motion acknowledging the genocide perpetrated by German troops and supporting claims made by the affected ethnic groups for material reparations from the German state.The German Foreign Affairs Ministry rejected the reparations claims made by the Herero in 1990 after Independence and has refused since then to enter into any dialogue.The debate will start early this month.Herero Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako, who tabled a similar motion in the National Assembly in Windhoek last September, is expected to attend the first session of the Bundestag on the topic.”We are very happy about this favourable decision,” Frank Renken, a spokesperson of the Left Party at the Bundestag, told The Namibian from Berlin.According to Renken, the Left Party had also sent a letter to Prime Minster Nahas Angula to inform the Namibian Government that the debate would take place.The letter was sent via the Namibian Embassy in Berlin.However, Penda Namuhuja, special assistant to the Prime Minister, said the letter had not yet arrived.”I am unaware of it,” Namuhuja said last week, when approached by The Namibian.The Left Party’s motion requests the Berlin parliament to call on the federal government of Germany “to accept its historical responsibility and to recognise the right to reparations of the Herero and Nama peoples for the genocide” perpetrated by the German Schutztruppe (colonial troops) on these people from 1904 to 1908 and to “inform the Namibian Government of its readiness to enter into an open dialogue about reconciliation and reparations” for those groups.It further requests that German companies or their legal successors which profited from forced labour and land expropriations in then German South West Africa should be involved appropriately in the payment of compensation to those groups.”Although the consequences of Germany’s campaign of annihilation are still present in Namibia’s social reality, no succeeding German state up to now has signalled its readiness to make reparations.As the legal successor to the German Empire, the Federal Republic of Germany, too, has unfortunately failed to meet its historical responsibilities with respect to the descendants of the victims of the genocide,” the motions said.The Left Party argues that the Herero people “were compelled” to take legal action in 2001 against German companies and the government in Berlin by demanding compensation.”Acknowledgement of the genocide and a political decision by the Federal Government to open a dialogue regarding material reparations would render the legal dispute superfluous,” according to the Left Party.On October 26 2006 Namibia’s National Assembly voted unanimously to adopt Chief Riruako’s motion acknowledging the genocide perpetrated by German troops and supporting claims made by the affected ethnic groups for material reparations from the German state.The German Foreign Affairs Ministry rejected the reparations claims made by the Herero in 1990 after Independence and has refused since then to enter into any dialogue.