Staff Reporter
Windhoek – The Vice-President and Chairperson of the Political Committee on Genocide, Reparations and Apology, Dr Nickey Iyambo, has dismissed as “entirely unfounded” the story published in The Namibian on Friday, March 7, under the title: “Government makes U-turn on Genocide.”
A statement issued by Iyambo said the story is false and malicious as it insinuated the Namibian Government has made a U turn in its approach to its policy on the handling of the 1904 –1908 genocide and that it now plans a legal tussle of dragging Germany to the International Criminal Court (ICC); and is only now joining the chorus for the demand of reparations.
He stated, “Given the fact that, the guiding policy principle since the appointment of the Namibian Special Envoy in December 2015 has always been anchored on three pillars, namely Genocide, Apology and Reparations the Government of the Republic of Namibia is committed to the current diplomatic negotiations which emanate from our National Parliament motion adopted on 26 October 2006.”
He said “a substantive document setting out our case on Genocide, Apology and Reparations has been submitted to the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany through their Special Envoy on 6 July 2016.”
“We trust the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany is giving serious attention to the position contained in the said document supplemented by the exchanges in the meetings we have had so far. Thus, the Government of the Republic of Namibia has no reason at this stage to take recourse to any court. This position of our government has full support and active participation of the direct Genocide victims (Ovaherero and Nama communities as well as other affected communities). The only invitation extended to the group that is currently not participating in the bilateral negotiations has always been to join in the diplomatic negotiations that are currently at an advanced stage,” he stated.
“It goes without saying that the form of acceptable apology and meaningful quantum of reparations are serious and sensitive issues that cannot be a matter of speculative journalism.’
“More so, the Namibian Government is committed to work with its counterpart to bring about an amicable closure to this sad history on the basis of the principles of mutual trust and humanitarianism,” concluded Iyambo.