Germany recognizes colonial-era massacres in Namibia as genocide | Genocide News

Germany will apologize to Namibia for the “tremendous suffering” caused by the 1904-1908 massacres.

Germany has acknowledged that it committed genocide for the first time in its colonial rule in Namibia more than a century ago and promised more than a billion euros in funding ($ 1.2 billion) to fund Africa’s national infrastructure projects.

German settlers killed thousands of Herero and Namatians between 1904 and 1908, after the tribes rebelled against the rule of Berlin, then known as South West Africa.

The survivors were taken to the desert, where many ended up in concentration camps to be used as slave labor and many died of cold, malnutrition and fatigue.

“We will now officially refer to these events as they are from today’s perspective: the genocide,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said in a statement on Friday.

“Given Germany’s historical and moral responsibility, we apologize for the atrocities committed against Namibia and its descendants,” he said.

As a gesture of “acknowledging the tremendous suffering caused to the victims,” Germany will support Namibia’s “reconstruction and development” through a $ 1.1 billion ($ 1.34 billion) financial program, he added.

The amount will be paid in 30 years, according to sources close to the negotiations, and will mainly benefit the descendants of Herero and Namen.

Maas said the agreed payments, made after more than five years of negotiations, do not pave the way for “any legal claim for compensation.”

Rebellion, reprisals

Germany ruled Namibia from 1884 until it lost its colony in World War I.

In 1904, tensions escalated as herds – excluding livestock and land – increased, and soon after.

German General Lothar von Trotha, sent to put an end to the revolt, ordered the massacre of the peoples.

At least 60,000 hereros and about 10,000 nama died between 1904 and 1908.

Colonial soldiers carried out mass executions; thousands of exiled men, women and children died of thirst in the desert; and created evil concentration camps, such as on Shark Island.

The savagery has poisoned relations over the years and between Berlin and Windhoek.

The German government has previously acknowledged “moral responsibility” for the killings, but Berlin has avoided an official apology to scare off compensation claims.

In 2015, he began formal negotiations with Namibia on the issue, and in 2018 he returned to them the skulls and other traces of tribal massacres used in colonial-era experiments to assert European racial dominance.

On Thursday, Namibian President Alfredo Hengari’s spokesman told Reuters news agency that a joint statement containing the agreement was made by special envoys from the two countries on May 15, at the end of the ninth negotiation on the issue.

Hengari also said that an official apology was expected from Germany, and that “implementation modalities can only begin after the president has spoken to the affected communities.”

Herero Paramount chief Vekuii Rukoro told Reuters that the settlement was “exhausted”.

The head, without asking for compensation in the United States in Germany, said the deal was not enough for the two communities as they suffered “irreversible damage” at the hands of German colonial forces.

“We have a problem with this agreement, which we believe is the complete exhaustion of the Namibian government,” Rukoro said.