Herero Ruler gives German government an ultimatum

[Akyeame Kwame]

Riruako Issues Ultimatum

New Era (Windhoek)

June 6, 2005

Wezi Tjaronda


HERERO Paramount Chief Kuaima Riruako has given the
German government an ultimatum - to agree to pay for
the blood of his people before the end of the year.

"We don't want to play around and play games. Let us
agree on a date, time and venue of our first official
discussion on the way forward," said Riruako on Friday
at the opening of the photo exhibition of the
commemoration of the Namibian victims of the 1904 war
at Ohamakari.


At the same platform, which drew different traditional
leaders, government ministers and other dignitaries,
Minister without Portfolio Ngarikutuke Tjiriange said
the German government should put an instrument in
place to bind every government that comes into power
on the issue of compensation for the victims of war.

"They should put in place an instrument to bind every
government so that every government coming into power
will not say it was not my exercise," he added.

After the Bremen Conference last year recommended that
the governments of Germany and Namibia enter into
meaningful dialogue to facilitate the creation of a
platform for stakeholders concerned, the said dialogue
has not yet taken place. Two weeks ago, the German
Minister of Economic Cooperation, Heidemarie
Wieckzo-reck- Zeul announced that her government would
avail N$160 million for development projects in
resettlement areas of the affected victims of the
colonial wars between 1904 and 1908.

Riruako said Germany should have consulted the victims
of the war through a process of dialogue as agreed in
Bremen before availing the money.

He was also at pains to understand why it has been
difficult to compensate the affected communities in
Namibia while Germany compensated the Jews in a
process that ran from 1952 until 1965.

In terms of an agreement between the two countries,
Germany and Israel, "Germany agreed to pay the
negotiated amount of US$714 million to Israel to
support the assimilation of displaced and impoverished
refugees."

Against this, Riruako said that if the victims were
whites, the German government would have behaved
differently.

He urged the German government to prove that it is a
nation of caring people who regret the action of their
forefathers by undertaking serious dialogue to talk
about how the suffering of the Herero people could be
relieved through compensation.

Considering that the German war not only targeted
Hereros but also Damaras and Namas, Tjiriange said
more has to be done for the whole country and for
other communities that suffered the same colonial
atrocities but, said he, the way forward should be
negotiated by the two governments and representatives
of the affected communities to come up with real
projects and not just tokens.

"But real projects that will make meaningful
developmental changes to those communities," he said,
adding that only when people see meaningful projects
to their lives would reconciliation have meaning.

The Okakarara Community Cultural Tourism Centre is the
first centre to be established in the communities that
were adversely affected by the German colonial war of
1904 to 1908.

Tjiriange said as a result of the negotiations between
the two governments and affected community
representatives, the government would want every
affected community to be pleased, particularly the
Hereros, Namas and Damaras.

The German government spent N$2.5 million to construct
the centre, including the exhibition hall.

Although it is the first centre to be established,
German Ambassador to Namibia Dr Wolfgang Massing said
it would not be the last major German-funded project
intended to "guard against forgetting and denying the
past which was especially painful for the communities
concerned. Reconciliation is not possible without
remembrance."