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08/13/2004:

"Namibia Marks Century-Old Massacre Amid Calls for German Compensation"

Reuters
BERLIN, Aug. 11 - A German minister left for Namibia on Wednesday amid calls by Namibia's government and human rights advocates for Germany to pay compensation for a massacre of Herero tribesmen in 1904 by its colonial troops.

Germany's development minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, will attend a ceremony in Okakarara on Saturday marking the 100th anniversary of a revolt by the Herero people in southwest Africa against Kaiser Wilhelm's troops in which 65,000 of the 80,000 Hereros died.

About 10,000 members of the Nama tribe were also killed in the massacre, which some historians call the first genocide of the 20th century.

Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul will also discuss regional development with the Namibian government and meet Herero representatives.

"In making this trip I want to mark Germany's particular political and moral responsibility for the past and its colonial guilt," Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul said in a statement. "I would also like to emphasize Germany's special responsibility for Namibia."

Germany, which is Namibia's main source of development aid, has expressed "deep regret" for the killings, which almost eradicated the Herero tribe, but has ruled out paying compensation, and has not made a formal apology out of fear this could make it vulnerable to claims.

Though the Herero people are using the anniversary to press their demand for reparations, the killings happened too long ago for them to file a civil suit in Germany. A $4 billion lawsuit that has been filed in the United States is thought to have limited chance of success.

The Society for Threatened Peoples, a Berlin-based human rights group, said Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul's visit was a step in the right direction, but Ulrich Delius, the group's Africa representative, called on Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul to acknowledge Germany's guilt and not "duck out of the issue," as he said Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer had done during his visit to Namibia in October 2003.

Germany, which has paid billions in compensation for victims of the Nazis, has argued that the Herero people have no case for compensation because international laws on the protection of civilians did not exist at the time of the conflict.

A former attorney general in Namibia, Veuii Rukoro, has dismissed this argument as "not only an insult to the collective intelligence of mankind, but also a blatantly racist statement" given Germany's payments to Jewish victims of the Nazi era.

This paternalistic business is so hypocritical and so sickening. Germany's 'special responsibility for Namibia'?? For what about Namibia? For history? For well-being? For what? What does it mean to 'feel responsible' and yet to refuse to act? Namibia is not asking for German concern or care or nebulous 'responsibility.' Namibia wants $4billion. Period.