Government urged to compensate the San

THE National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has taken a swipe at what it feels are belated efforts by Government to sympathise with the plight of the San community, insisting that the authorities should pay reparations to the neglected and marginalised San people.

In a press release, the NSHR said although Government’s approach was a step in the right direction, more needed to be done. “While we sincerely welcome Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila’s observations and personal commitment in this regard, we nonetheless expected her on behalf of the Government of Namibia to apologise unequivocally to the San people themselves and civil society actors as well as other stakeholders for the gross negligence with which Government had handled the San rights issue from the start,” said NSHR Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh.The NSHR expressed concern that for years, civil society in Namibia as well as United Nations (UN) agencies had produced a number of reports urging Government to act on the plight of the San, but nothing had been done.”Specifically, NSHR and Minority Rights Group (MRG) International, Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (Wimsa), the Legal Assistance Centre, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as well as the media, have issued various detailed reports on the inhuman San situation in this country.The NSHR said the authorities had dismissed the plight of the San: “For example, on November 25 2003, NSHR screened a video documentary on starving San people at Talismanus, some 400 kilometres east of Windhoek.”However, on November 28 the same year, the former Prime Minister, Theo-Ben Gurirab, derogatorily referred to NSHR as ‘the so-called human rights group trumpeting serious allegations on alleged death due to starvation’.”While on July 19 2003, former President Sam Nujoma angrily dismissed the media as well as NSHR and MRG as reactionary newspapers and non-governmental organisations spreading false rumours on the marginalisation of the San people,” recalled Ya Nangoloh.Furthermore, the NSHR’s annual human rights report for 2005 observed that the situation of the San had deteriorated considerably during the period under review.Just recently, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights undertook a study tour on the San communities.The report is due for publication soon.Given the plight of the San, the NSHR believed Government owed those affected reparations.”In our opinion there is a criminal liability case of simultaneous occurrence of inaction and wilful or voluntary blindness or recklessness on the part of Government.”A crime has thus been committed,” Ya Nangoloh claimed.”For this obvious gross criminal negligence bordering on moral genocide, the Government should make reparations to the country’s San populations.””While we sincerely welcome Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila’s observations and personal commitment in this regard, we nonetheless expected her on behalf of the Government of Namibia to apologise unequivocally to the San people themselves and civil society actors as well as other stakeholders for the gross negligence with which Government had handled the San rights issue from the start,” said NSHR Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh.The NSHR expressed concern that for years, civil society in Namibia as well as United Nations (UN) agencies had produced a number of reports urging Government to act on the plight of the San, but nothing had been done.”Specifically, NSHR and Minority Rights Group (MRG) International, Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (Wimsa), the Legal Assistance Centre, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as well as the media, have issued various detailed reports on the inhuman San situation in this country.The NSHR said the authorities had dismissed the plight of the San: “For example, on November 25 2003, NSHR screened a video documentary on starving San people at Talismanus, some 400 kilometres east of Windhoek.”However, on November 28 the same year, the former Prime Minister, Theo-Ben Gurirab, derogatorily referred to NSHR as ‘the so-called human rights group trumpeting serious allegations on alleged death due to starvation’.”While on July 19 2003, former President Sam Nujoma angrily dismissed the media as well as NSHR and MRG as reactionary newspapers and non-governmental organisations spreading false rumours on the marginalisation of the San people,” recalled Ya Nangoloh.Furthermore, the NSHR’s annual human rights report for 2005 observed that the situation of the San had deteriorated considerably during the period under review.Just recently, the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights undertook a study tour on the San communities.The report is due for publication soon.Given the plight of the San, the NSHR believed Government owed those affected reparations.”In our opinion there is a criminal liability case of simultaneous occurrence of inaction and wilful or voluntary blindness or recklessness on the part of Government.”A crime has thus been committed,” Ya Nangoloh claimed.”For this obvious gross criminal negligence bordering on moral genocide, the Government should make reparations to the country’s San populations.”