Namibia urges reparations at first German genocide memorial
President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah repeated calls Wednesday for Germany to pay reparations for its genocide against Namibian tribes as she led the first official commemoration of the atrocity more than 120 years ago.
Thousands of indigenous Herero and Nama people were massacred by colonial-era German troops between 1904 and 1908 after they rebelled against their rule in what is regarded as the first genocide of the 20th century.
"We should find a degree of comfort in the fact that the German government has agreed that the German troops committed a genocide against the... people of our land," Nandi-Ndaitwah said at the ceremony held in the gardens of parliament.
Berlin has offered an apology but there is still no agreement on reparations in talks that began with the German government in 2013, she said.
"We must remain committed that as a nation, we shall soldier on until the ultimate conclusion is reached," she said.
Germany has pledged more than one billion euros ($1 billion) in development aid over 30 years to benefit the descendants of the two tribes, stressing this could not be considered as payment of reparations. Namibia has rejected the offer.
The commemoration was attended by around 1,000 people including the German ambassador, Thorsten Hutter.
Candles were lit in honour of the victims and a minute of silence was followed by song and speeches.
"It is a stark reminder of the pain and suffering that was inflicted by German imperial troops during the colonial era," Hutter said.
"I believe that it is important to understand that we cannot change the past, but as the people who are living today, it is our responsibility to remember those atrocities that were committed," he said.
After lengthy and sometimes acrimonious negotiations, Germany in 2021 recognised the killings by its settlers constituted a genocide.
An estimated 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people were killed. Some were beheaded and their skulls handed to researchers in Berlin for since-discredited "scientific" experiments framed to prove the racial superiority of whites over blacks.
Germany returned the skulls and other human remains to Namibia in 2011 and 2018.
May 28 was chosen for the annual Genocide Remembrance Day commemoration as it was the day in 1907 when German authorities ordered the closure of concentration camps following international criticism over the brutal conditions and high death rates.
It has been declared a public holiday in Namibia, a sparsely populated and largely desert nation of nearly three million people.
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