Herero, Nama say non-adoption of genocide motion ‘racist’

THE genocide technical committees of the Nama and Ovaherero on Friday requested the Namibian government to reassess its bilateral relations with Germany after the ruling German coalition’s rejection of the Left Party’s motion seeking an official apology for the 1904 to 1908 genocide and restorative justice.

‘In the aftermath of such a humiliating rejection of the motion, which is no doubt a slap in the face of the Namibian people and their government, it certainly cannot be business as usual between the two governments,’ the groups stated. The groups said the rejection is ‘simply an act of racism’, charging that Germany was prepared to pay restoration to Jews for the Nazi holocaust because they are white.’If the government is not responding to the interests of the people, the cordial relations can be disturbed by a small moment of action,’ said Festus Mudjua of the Ovaherero genocide technical committee. Also, said Hewat Beukes of the Nama committee, the German Imperial regime had entered into protection treaties with various groups on which basis it issued the extermination orders.’Why now come with bilateral relations?’ he questioned, suggesting that German government should deal with the groups that the imperial government had treaties with.They vowed to mobilise the international community to put pressure on the German government and rally sympathetic Germans to vote out the ruling coalition government and install a humane government that is sensitive to the demands of the Namibian groups’ demands for restorative justice and has the ‘moral conscience and wisdom to listen to the voice of the affected descendants’ of the genocide here.The committees want an apology, which would be a recognition that the genocide did take place, and restoration in cash and kind, as well as a stipulation of when a tripartite discussion, which include the two governments as well as the descendants of the affected communities. Germany’s special initiative introduced in 2004 through which money has been availed for projects for affected communities, the groups said, is nothing more than a face-saving public relations exercise, and not a substitute to reparation.Ida Hoffmann of the Nama genocide committee said the special initiative appears not to have benefited affected communities.Similarly, she said, German consultants employed to assist with the implementation of the special initiative should be replaced by Ovaherero and Nama because they would have a better understanding of the needs of the communities. Mundjua added that Namibian Germans, as the ‘recipients of stolen goods’, should support the affected communities to impress the German government to ‘pay attention’ to what the groups are demanding.