Windhoek
Vice-President Nickey Iyambo has re-emphasized government’s commitment in the negotiations for genocide reparation from Germany.
Speaking at State House last week when senior officials of the executive, including President Hage Geingob, met with permanent secretaries, Iyambo said that there are those who are alluding that government is in secret discussions with the German government, but this is “unfounded”.
“We are preparing but you can rest assured that government is not interested in anything else than to carry the views of our people to the other side,” he said, adding that the Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila is the deputy chair of the genocide committee, with other colleagues also as members.
Meanwhile, for the 2016/2017 financial year the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation allocated N$10 million of its N$900 million budget towards ongoing talks with the German government on reparation for the 1904-1908 Namibian genocide.
Last year, the two governments agreed to appoint special envoys as the engagement moved to a new level.
President Geingob appointed Dr Zed Ngavirue as government’s special envoy to lead deliberations with his German counterpart Ruprecht Polenz.
Furthermore, government also established a political committee chaired by Iyambo, deputised by Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. The office of Iyambo is tasked with dealing with the genocide reparation demands.
There has been mixed reaction among the affected communities with some saying ‘there can be nothing about us without us’ and others applauding government for creating ‘appropriate structures’ to spearhead the negotiations with Germany.
For over a decade, the OvaHerero, Ovambanderu and Nama people have sought reparation from Germany.
In 2001, they filed a US$4 billion lawsuit against the German government and two German firms in the US. But Germany dismissed the claim, saying international rules on the protection of combatants and civilians were not in existence at the time of the conflict.
The then commander of the German Imperial Forces, General Lothar von Trotha, issued an extermination order against the OvaHerero on October 12, 1904, and this led to the death of between 65 000 and 80 000 OvaHerero and Nama people, who were either killed in subsequent battles or died of thirst and starvation as they were driven into the arid Omaheke desert.