24 Jul 2014

Namibian descendants in Botswana and South Africa have been assured that their country will fight the course until a repatriation solution is found.

Speaking at the Otjiserandu Ombaru Jovaherero event in Tsau on Saturday, July 19, the General Secretary of the Technical Committee of Ovabanderu Council for Dialogue (OCD) on the 1904 genocide, Mr Ueriuka Tjikuua implored Namibians in the diaspora to remain calm and support the course for a positive outcome. 

Mr Tjikuua said the OCD 1904 resolved to address some burning issues at the higher level of the Namibian government as a way of finding amicable solutions.

“Now that Namibia is free at last, the descendants of the victims of the genocide deserve the right to return to their mother land and be treated like all other returnees of the liberation struggle in this process, but this does not seem to be the case,” he said.

He said they could not condone a policy, which stated that ‘anyone who was planning to return to Namibia from Botswana had to apply for citizenship and expect to be treated like any foreigner going to Namibia.’

Furthermore, he pointed out that the OCD-1904 framework for the dialogue on the 1904 Genocide and other atrocities committed by the Imperial Germany government, included the issue of repatriation of their people in Botswana, South Africa and other neighbouring countries such as Angola or Cameroon.

“The OCD- 1904 Council, therefore felt it was appropriate to express our total dissatisfaction about the position of our government regarding the repatriation process of the Ovaherero and Ovabanderu people living in Botswana,” he said.

He added that their dissatisfaction was based on ruthless acts committed by the German General Lotha Von Trotha, who had issued an extermination order in 1904.

This was in an attempt to wipe out all the Ovaherero and Ovabanderu people in Namibia, which resulted in the displacement of the majority of the Namibian people currently living in Botswana.

He said the OCD-1904 composed of Ovaherero, Ovabamderu and Nama communities and will continue to emphasize that there will be no peaceful and reconciliatory co-existence between the descendants and the victims of the genocide and the Germans without a comprehensive process of restorative justice.

“This process should entail an unconditional admission of responsibility, official apology and just compensation by the present German government,” he said.

However, he said of late, there was a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of Namibia, the Government of Federal Republic of Germany and the affected Communities on the Tripartite Dialogue vis-a-vis the 1904-1908 genocide dated 2012.

He said in particular, the MOU aims to enhance sound and healthy bilateral relations between Namibia and Germany, stimulate understanding and reconciliation between the two people. 

Meanwhile, he said the donning of military outfits during the Otjiserandu Ombaru Jovaherero cultural event should not be perceived as a military threat but rather as something that troops of veterans of the war used to remember the heroic battles. ENDS