Germany will support Namibia and descendants of victims with € 1.1 billion for reconstruction and development and ask forgiveness for “crimes of German colonial rule,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Friday in a press release.
“Our goal was and is to find a common path towards true reconciliation in memory of the victims. This includes naming the events of the German colonial period in present-day Namibia, and in particular the atrocities of the period 1904 to 1908, without We will now officially characterize these events as they were from the point of view of today: genocide, ”Maas said.
The Namibian government has seen the formal acceptance of the atrocities as genocide as a key step in the process of reconciliation and reparation, Namibian presidency spokesman Alfredo Hengari told CNN on Friday.
“These are very positive developments in light of a very long process that has accelerated over the past five years. People will never forget this genocide; they live with it. And it is an important process in terms of healing from those wounds, ”he said.
A bloody conflict
According to historians, the bloody conflict arose when the indigenous Herero peoples revolted against colonial troops for land grabs. Germany, which now provides development assistance to Namibia, issued its first official apology for the conflict in 2004.
“The crimes of German colonial rule have long weighed on relations with Namibia. There can be no closing of the book on the past. However, acknowledging guilt and asking for an apology is an important step towards accepting the crimes and shaping the future together, ”Maas said.
German media report that a formal request for forgiveness will be made by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during a ceremony in the Namibian parliament.
“A decision on a possible trip of the Federal President will be taken after the governments have reached a formal agreement and in close consultation with the Namibian side,” a spokesperson for the Federal President’s office told CNN.
In 1994, around 800,000 Tutsis, mostly of ethnic origin, were killed by Hutu militias supported by the Rwandan government. France has been accused of failing to prevent the genocide and of supporting the Hutu regime, even after the start of the massacres.
Source: CNN
