Paramount Chief Vekuui Rukoro said that the Ovaherero and Nama people remain firmly united against Germany.Rukoro was addressing the nation on genocide matters, removing of German colonial monuments and their demands to Germany in the capital, Wednesday morning.
The paramount Chief labelled Germany’s proposed apology as an “act of disgrace”.
President Geingob in his State of Nation Address in June 2020 said Germany is ready to apologise for the 1904 to 1908 genocide
“Any putative apology that is rendered is but one more act of disgrace and desecration by the German government of the memories of anyone and everything they took from us”.
Rukoro doubted the fact that the German government is ready to apologise saying the country could only admit “by word of mouth” that events of 1904 to 1908 constituted as “war crimes, wars of extermination, and genocide” 107 years after it happened.
“We were naive enough to believe that Germany understood that our demand involves steps and that the step 2, the apology, cannot come before step 1 the recognition … that is why we decided to go to court,” he said.
The traditional authorities filed a federal class-action lawsuit in the United States of America against Germany seeking restorative justice for the 1904 to 1908 genocide of the Ovaherero and Nama people in 2017.
Rukoro further said the legal position that Germany took in court was shocking because according to Germany there was no “violation of international law”.
Germany argued that in 1904 genocide was legally permissible because “they did absolutely nothing wrong”.
“Germany said they cannot be held liable legally for murdering people and taking their property if those people had no right to exist in the first place and that’s their case, in an open court, in a civilized country, America,” said Rukoro.
