Enlarge image
A Herero representative shows photos of his ancestors - the family had fled the genocide under German colonial rule
Photo: Gioia Forster / picture alliance / dpa
The Herero and Nama from Namibia are demanding a new reconciliation agreement from Germany.
The treaty on colonial history negotiated with the Namibian government must be discarded.
"We will never accept this agreement until we become part (of the negotiation process)," said Berlin Herero activist Israel Kaunatjike at an online press conference.
He called for new negotiations on reparations for German colonial crimes at the beginning of the 20th century.
Kaunatjike said it was about the "recognition of the genocide" by German colonial troops in what was then German South-West Africa and about the close involvement of the affected communities in the negotiations.
Today's Namibia was a German colony from 1884 to 1915.
Between 1904 and 1908, under German rule, tens of thousands of Herero and Nama were killed by Imperial German troops.
Mutjinde Katjiua from the Namibian Herero association Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) described the German-Namibian agreement negotiated last year as a "flop".
"There must be a restart of the negotiations," he said, demanding direct reparations payments to the descendants of the victims.
In May 2021, the then federal government and the Namibian government announced a reconciliation agreement.
The agreement provides for reconstruction aid of 1.1 billion euros as compensation for German colonial crimes.
In the agreement, the German colonial crimes against the Herero and Nama are recognized as "genocide" in the historical sense, but not in the sense of international law.
The legal term »reparations« is therefore not used.
The German-Namibian agreement was heavily criticized by the opposition in Namibia and representatives of the Herero and Nama, among others.
They complain that victims' representatives are not involved in the negotiations with Germany and insist on official recognition of the genocide, also in the sense of international law.
The Namibian parliament has not yet ratified the reconciliation agreement.
as /AFP
