THE patron of the Ovaherero Genocide Committee, Festus Muundjua, on Monday denounced the German embassy’s denial that an agreement to forfeit the payment of reparations in exchange for aid existed before independence.
The media has reported in the past about the claims made by the Nama/Ovaherero descendants, who cited historical documents which stated that such an agreement exists.
Muundjua’s statement comes a few days after the German embassy released a press statement, where they expressed that no such agreement exists.
The embassy’s statement was released in reaction to reports where paramount chief Vekuii Rukoro had reiterated that such a secret agreement was signed between Germany and Namibia for developmental aid to be provided, instead of paying for reparations.
Muundjua yesterday accentuated Rukoro’s words by saying that the claim is from Jan Grofe, a researcher, who revealed that German developmental aid after independence and support for Swapo makes the payment of reparations void.
“The document from where I have extracted the excerpt I have quoted above was published by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung and the Namibia Institute for Democracy at their edition five on page four,” he stated. Muundjua added that the same paragraph was quoted already over a year ago, and he does not understand why the German embassy would only speak out about it now.
The German embassy pointed out in its statement last week that neither the current nor previous German government has ever signed such an alleged agreement, and in fact, no such agreement exists.
