Germans challenged on 'secret deal'
The Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA) has challenged the German government to prove that it did not enter into an agreement with the Namibian government at the dawn of independence, which included billions of dollars of donor funds in exchange for not paying reparations directly to the Nama and Ovaherero genocide descendants.
The traditional authority referenced a research paper published in 2004 titled 'The prospects of success for the Herero lawsuit against the Deutsche Bank for crimes committed during the German colonial times', by German researcher Professor Jan Grofe.
“After Namibia's independence in 1990 and German reunification in the same year, the Hereros instituted claims of reparation from Germany. By then, however, the two states had already agreed to establish a special relationship due to their historical ties.
“For the German government these special relations entailed providing Namibia with more developmental aid than any other country… For its part, the Namibian government agreed that continuing German development aid, together with the German Democratic Republic's support for… (Swapo) during the struggle for independence against South Africa, made reparation payments void,” Grofe wrote.
According to traditional authority spokesperson Uazuva Kaumbi, Germany must pronounce itself on Grofe's analysis that was published by the Konrad-Adenhauer-Stiftung (KAS).
“The Konrad-Adenhauer-Stiftung didn't question the contents of the paper and the German government also to date never denied it so they must now prove to us that it is not true,” said Kaumbi.
The KAS is a political foundation which offers civic education programmes aimed at promoting freedom and liberty, peace and justice. It also focuses on consolidating democracy, the unification of Europe and the strengthening of transatlantic relations, as well as on development cooperation.
Namibia's genocide reparations special envoy, Zed Ngavirue, said yesterday it is not within in his mandate to respond to Grofe's report.
He, however, said there is no proof of the alleged agreement Grofe talks about.
“They (the Ovaherero authority) are always selling this idea but there is no proof of it, nobody can show in writing that agreement. It doesn't hold water at all, but you should be speaking to national planning and foreign affairs,” he said.
He referred questions to economic planning minister Obed Kandjoze and to international relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
Kandjoze said he can only comment once he has seen and followed up on Grofe's research paper.
Questions sent to Nandi-Ndaitwah were not answered at the time of going to print.
Eva Borkner, the press and political affairs officer of the German embassy in Namibia, said it is crucial that Grofe explicitly does not mention any formal agreement and also does not prove the existence of such a German-Namibian deal.
“In its resolution of 1989, the German Bundestag clearly stated Germany's special historic and moral responsibility towards Namibia.
“Therefore the German Bundestag called on the federal government to further deepen the good bilateral relations and further pursue development cooperation with Namibia on a high level.
“The federal government has been putting this call into action ever since, down to the present day. The embassy neither comments on Professor Grofe's personal assessment of the political situation at that time nor his description of the Namibian government's policies,” Borkner said.
JEMIMA BEUKES
The traditional authority referenced a research paper published in 2004 titled 'The prospects of success for the Herero lawsuit against the Deutsche Bank for crimes committed during the German colonial times', by German researcher Professor Jan Grofe.
“After Namibia's independence in 1990 and German reunification in the same year, the Hereros instituted claims of reparation from Germany. By then, however, the two states had already agreed to establish a special relationship due to their historical ties.
“For the German government these special relations entailed providing Namibia with more developmental aid than any other country… For its part, the Namibian government agreed that continuing German development aid, together with the German Democratic Republic's support for… (Swapo) during the struggle for independence against South Africa, made reparation payments void,” Grofe wrote.
According to traditional authority spokesperson Uazuva Kaumbi, Germany must pronounce itself on Grofe's analysis that was published by the Konrad-Adenhauer-Stiftung (KAS).
“The Konrad-Adenhauer-Stiftung didn't question the contents of the paper and the German government also to date never denied it so they must now prove to us that it is not true,” said Kaumbi.
The KAS is a political foundation which offers civic education programmes aimed at promoting freedom and liberty, peace and justice. It also focuses on consolidating democracy, the unification of Europe and the strengthening of transatlantic relations, as well as on development cooperation.
Namibia's genocide reparations special envoy, Zed Ngavirue, said yesterday it is not within in his mandate to respond to Grofe's report.
He, however, said there is no proof of the alleged agreement Grofe talks about.
“They (the Ovaherero authority) are always selling this idea but there is no proof of it, nobody can show in writing that agreement. It doesn't hold water at all, but you should be speaking to national planning and foreign affairs,” he said.
He referred questions to economic planning minister Obed Kandjoze and to international relations minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
Kandjoze said he can only comment once he has seen and followed up on Grofe's research paper.
Questions sent to Nandi-Ndaitwah were not answered at the time of going to print.
Eva Borkner, the press and political affairs officer of the German embassy in Namibia, said it is crucial that Grofe explicitly does not mention any formal agreement and also does not prove the existence of such a German-Namibian deal.
“In its resolution of 1989, the German Bundestag clearly stated Germany's special historic and moral responsibility towards Namibia.
“Therefore the German Bundestag called on the federal government to further deepen the good bilateral relations and further pursue development cooperation with Namibia on a high level.
“The federal government has been putting this call into action ever since, down to the present day. The embassy neither comments on Professor Grofe's personal assessment of the political situation at that time nor his description of the Namibian government's policies,” Borkner said.
JEMIMA BEUKES
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