Germany mulls remedy other than reparations

GERMANY has hinted that it is ready to open dialogue with Namibia’s Herero people who are suing Berlin for their near-extermination by colonial troops a century ago.

Addressing a panel debate in Windhoek on Wednesday about the German-Herero war of 1904-1907, Germany’s Ambassador to Namibia asserted that the lawsuit filed by the Herero “would not bring any solution” to the current stand-off between his government and the tribe. “What is needed is dialogue between all parties; we have to listen to each other and find a common solution.Forget about the court case, it will not help anything.There are many other possibilities to settle this matter,” said Wolfgang Massing.Massing’s comment came in the wake of a proposal by the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Namibia, Professor Manfred Hinz, for a reconciliation commission to be established to seek a negotiated settlement to the reparation issue.The Herero have filed lawsuits seeking US$4 billion from Germany and German companies they say profited from slavery and exploitation in what was then German South West Africa.Though Berlin has assumed moral responsibility for the massacre of about 65 000 of the 80 000-strong Herero tribe by German colonial soldiers, it has ruled out paying direct compensation and making a formal apology.Successive German leaders who have visited Namibia in recent years, including former President Roman Herzog in 1998, have refused to meet representatives of the Herero people.Massing’s remarks on Wednesday, and his Government’s decision to send its Minister for Economic and Technical Co-operation, Heidi Wieczorek-Zeul, to the centenary commemoration of the Herero genocide later this month, appear to point to a softening in Berlin’s hard-line stance on the issue.”We want to move forward.This year is the first time that Germany recognises and sends a high-ranking official to these commemoration… this is a positive step,” the diplomat said.The Ambassador, however, irked many people in the audience, including some German citizens, when he remarked that a recent resolution on the 1904 genocide by the German parliament was a “positive step forward”.”Not all Germans feel the same about this issue.The resolution failed at the least to recognise that there was genocide or give a formal apology.I find it a slap in the face of the victims.The remarks of the ambassador are even a slap in my face by my own government,” responded German journalist Henning Hintze.The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) welcomed Germany’s willingness to negotiate but said the former colonial power should not expect the Herero to discontinue their court case as a pre-condition for a negotiated settlement of the reparations dispute.The NSHR then took a swipe at the Namibian Government’s continuous snubbing of activities to commemorate the 1904 war.”Such an attitude is probably one of the clearest indicators of the discriminatory and exclusionist fashion in which German development aid is implemented in Namibia,” NSHR Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh charged.During the debate, a prominent member of the Herero People’s Reparation Corporation and historian, Festus Muundjua, warned of a Zimbabwean-style land grab if Germany did not heed his people’s demands for reparation.He said Herero leaders constantly had to restrain their people because tensions were running high in the Herero community as land that was forcefully taken from them was still occupied by descendants of German settlers.”If these people, out of frustration, start getting out of hand, maybe it would be too late and the consequences would not be desirable,” Muundjua warned.Experts say the Herero suit filed in a US federal court has a limited chance of success as international conventions against genocide were not agreed to until decades after the Herero war.Some believe the genocide was a foretaste of Nazi Germany’s Jewish holocaust more than three decades later and that Germany should compensate the Herero like the Jewish community.Since their final defeat by German troops in 1907, Herero survivors have been scattered over Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.Thousands of Herero are expected to gather at Ohamakari in the Otjozondjupa Region, the scene of the last battle against the Germans, on August 14 as part of year-long activities to commemorate this year’s 100th anniversary of the war.”What is needed is dialogue between all parties; we have to listen to each other and find a common solution.Forget about the court case, it will not help anything.There are many other possibilities to settle this matter,” said Wolfgang Massing.Massing’s comment came in the wake of a proposal by the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Namibia, Professor Manfred Hinz, for a reconciliation commission to be established to seek a negotiated settlement to the reparation issue.The Herero have filed lawsuits seeking US$4 billion from Germany and German companies they say profited from slavery and exploitation in what was then German South West Africa.Though Berlin has assumed moral responsibility for the massacre of about 65 000 of the 80 000-strong Herero tribe by German colonial soldiers, it has ruled out paying direct compensation and making a formal apology.Successive German leaders who have visited Namibia in recent years, including former President Roman Herzog in 1998, have refused to meet representatives of the Herero people.Massing’s remarks on Wednesday, and his Government’s decision to send its Minister for Economic and Technical Co-operation, Heidi Wieczorek-Zeul, to the centenary commemoration of the Herero genocide later this month, appear to point to a softening in Berlin’s hard-line stance on the issue.”We want to move forward.This year is the first time that Germany recognises and sends a high-ranking official to these commemoration… this is a positive step,” the diplomat said.The Ambassador, however, irked many people in the audience, including some German citizens, when he remarked that a recent resolution on the 1904 genocide by the German parliament was a “positive step forward”.”Not all Germans feel the same about this issue.The resolution failed at the least to recognise that there was genocide or give a formal apology.I find it a slap in the face of the victims.The remarks of the ambassador are even a slap in my face by my own government,” responded German journalist Henning Hintze.The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) welcomed Germany’s willingness to negotiate but said the former colonial power should not expect the Herero to discontinue their court case as a pre-condition for a negotiated settlement of the reparations dispute.The NSHR then took a swipe at the Namibian Government’s continuous snubbing of activities to commemorate the 1904 war.”Such an attitude is probably one of the clearest indicators of the discriminatory and exclusionist fashion in which German development aid is implemented in Namibia,” NSHR Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh charged.During the debate, a prominent member of the Herero People’s Reparation Corporation and historian, Festus Muundjua, warned of a Zimbabwean-style land grab if Germany did not heed his people’s demands for reparation.He said Herero leaders constantly had to restrain their people because tensions were running high in the Herero community as land that was forcefully taken from them was still occupied by descendants of German settlers.”If these people, out of frustration, start getting out of hand, maybe it would be too late and the consequences would not be desirable,” Muundjua warned.Experts say the Herero suit filed in a US federal court has a limited chance of success as international conventions against genocide were not agreed to until decades after the Herero war.Some believe the genocide was a foretaste of Nazi Germany’s Jewish holocaust more than three decades later and that Germany should compensate the Herero like the Jewish community.Since their final defeat by German troops in 1907, Herero survivors have been scattered over Namibia, Botswana and South Africa.Thousands of Herero are expected to gather at Ohamakari in the Otjozondjupa Region, the scene of the last battle against the Germans, on August 14 as part of year-long activities to commemorate this year’s 100th anniversary of the war.