Germany Agrees to Pay Namibia €1.1bln over Historical Herero-Nama Genocide - FARS

(FNA)- Germany has to agreed to pay Namibia €1.1bln (£940ml) to fund projects among communities affected by the Herero-Nama genocide at the start of the 20th century, in what Angela Merkel’s government says amounts to a gesture of reconciliation but not legally binding reparations.

Tens of thousands of men, women and children were shot, tortured or driven into the Kalahari desert to starve by German troops between 1904 and 1908 after the Herero and Nama tribes rebelled against colonial rule in what was then named German South West Africa and is now Namibia, The Guardian reported.

Since 2015, Germany has negotiated with the Namibian government over what it calls an attempt to “heal the wounds” of historic violence.

On Thursday, official circles in Berlin confirmed reports in Namibian media that after nine rounds of negotiations the two sides had settled on the text of a joint declaration and a sum of €1.1bln, which will be paid separately to existing aid programmes over 30 years.

Of the overall sum, more than a billion euros will go towards projects relating to land reform, rural infrastructure, water supply and professional training. Communities of Herero and Nama descendants, which form ethnic minorities in all of the seven affected regions, are meant to be involved in the development of the specific projects.

Some €50mln will go towards setting up a foundation for reconciliation between the two states, including cultural projects and youth exchange programmes.

The text of the joint declaration will call the atrocities committed by German troops a “genocide” but omit the words “reparations” or “compensation”, the Guardian understands – a move borne out of fear that such language could set a legal precedent for similar claims from other nations.

Some of the numerous groups that make up the descendants of the genocide’s survivors have been critical of the framing of the negotiations from the outset and have declined to back the Namibian government’s stance.

Paramount chief Vekuii Rukoro, leader of the Ovaherero Traditional Authority, has criticised his government for not insisting on financial reparations, “When German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier comes to Namibia to render the apology we will embarrass him,” he told local media.

Namibian newspaper New Era reported on Thursday that at least three traditional leaders who had supported the government’s negotiations up to this point had refused to endorse the final wording of the declaration, which could make it difficult for President Hage Geingob to sign the deal.

The German side’s position is that it has negotiated the agreement with a Namibian government representing the country’s population as a whole, and that the deal does not stand or fall on the approval of Herero and Name descendants groups.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Friday welcomed the agreement.

“It was, and continues to be, our aim to find a common path towards real reconciliation in the memory of the victims,” said the Social Democrat politician.

“This requires us to be unreserved and unflinching in naming the events of the German colonial period in what is now Namibia, and especially the atrocities of the period 1904 to 1908. We will from now on officially call these events what they are from a contemporary perspective: a genocide,” he said.

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1.  Ce vendredi 28 mai, l’Allemagne a reconnu pour la première fois avoir commis un "génocide" en Namibie contre les populations Herero et Nama pendant l’ère coloniale entre 1884 et 1915. Cette annonce est le fruit de longues années de négociations entre les deux pays.

2. Miles de Herero y Nama fueron asesinados por las fuerzas coloniales alemanas entre 1904 y 1908, después de que las tribus se rebelaron contra el dominio alemán de la colonia, entonces llamada África del Sudoeste Alemana. Hoy el país europeo trabaja para corregir sus errores históricos.