Germany still mum on genocide apology
The German foreign ministry has confirmed the 1904-1908 massacre of the Ovaherero, Nama, Damara and San was indeed genocide, despite previous attempts to veer from a 2012 parliamentary motion that had acknowledged this.
German foreign ministry spokesperson Martin Schäfer, while speaking to media in his country recently, would however not say whether his government was working on an apology to the descendants of the affected communities. He stressed the negotiations between the German and Namibian governments are not yet complete.
“I tried to explain that in the end we are concerned with the construction of the future of Namibia. But to do this responsibly one has to have a common dealing with the past,” Schäfer told journalists.
Kenneth McCallion, the legal representative for the Ovaherero and Nama in their genocide case in a New York district court, said in correspondence with Ovaherero paramount chief Vekuii Rukoro and others this was a “significant development”.
This was especially because the German government had said previously that prior admissions by government officials were a “mistake” or unofficial.
Schäfer acknowledged the ministry's position on the matter is “exactly” the same as the motion tabled by the Social Democrats and the Green Party in March 2012 in the Bundestag.
Schäfer said German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had co-signed the motion.
A passage of the motion reads: “The German parliament recognises the severe guilt, which the German colonial troops have taken upon them with the crimes committed against the Herero, Nama, Damara and the San, and emphasises, just like historians have proven a long time ago, that the war of extermination in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 was a war crime and a genocide. The German parliament emphasises the continued… responsibility for the future of Namibia.”
Schäfer, when pressed for answers, said this was the position of the German government, adding the ongoing negotiations with the Namibian government were aimed at finding a “common understanding on what has happened”. He said the negotiations aim to agree on the vocabulary of the matter and after completion of the discussions they will produce a publication.
On this basis the development of a collection of projects will start “with which we can answer and engage the continuously felt consequences today of the actions that were committed in the German name”.
CATHERINE SASMAN
German foreign ministry spokesperson Martin Schäfer, while speaking to media in his country recently, would however not say whether his government was working on an apology to the descendants of the affected communities. He stressed the negotiations between the German and Namibian governments are not yet complete.
“I tried to explain that in the end we are concerned with the construction of the future of Namibia. But to do this responsibly one has to have a common dealing with the past,” Schäfer told journalists.
Kenneth McCallion, the legal representative for the Ovaherero and Nama in their genocide case in a New York district court, said in correspondence with Ovaherero paramount chief Vekuii Rukoro and others this was a “significant development”.
This was especially because the German government had said previously that prior admissions by government officials were a “mistake” or unofficial.
Schäfer acknowledged the ministry's position on the matter is “exactly” the same as the motion tabled by the Social Democrats and the Green Party in March 2012 in the Bundestag.
Schäfer said German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had co-signed the motion.
A passage of the motion reads: “The German parliament recognises the severe guilt, which the German colonial troops have taken upon them with the crimes committed against the Herero, Nama, Damara and the San, and emphasises, just like historians have proven a long time ago, that the war of extermination in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 was a war crime and a genocide. The German parliament emphasises the continued… responsibility for the future of Namibia.”
Schäfer, when pressed for answers, said this was the position of the German government, adding the ongoing negotiations with the Namibian government were aimed at finding a “common understanding on what has happened”. He said the negotiations aim to agree on the vocabulary of the matter and after completion of the discussions they will produce a publication.
On this basis the development of a collection of projects will start “with which we can answer and engage the continuously felt consequences today of the actions that were committed in the German name”.
CATHERINE SASMAN
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