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HUMAN RIGHTS
The thorny issue of war reparations arising from genocide committed
against
the Herero people during German colonial rule has resurfaced, this time,
in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, USA
The 1904-1907 war in Namibia, when the Herero rose in revolt against the German forces under the command of General Lather von Troth, resulted in the extermination of an estimated three-quarters of the Herero tribe. The German government in Berlin called off the war, only when it was satisfied that enough of the tribe had been killed so as to ensure there would be no further resistance to German authority in what they (the Germans) called South West Africa).
In September 2001, Herero Paramount Chief, Kuaima Riruako, called a press conference in Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, at which he announced that the Herero People’s Reparations Corporation, had, earlier this year in June, filed a claim in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, USA, to the amount of US $2 billion against Deutsche Bank AG and Woermann Line, now known as Deutsche-Africa-Linien.
Chief Riruako said the companies in question were guilty of a «brutal alliance with Imperial Germany. They relentlessly pursued the enslavement and genocidal destruction of the Herero Tribe in South West Africa. Foreshadowing with chilling precision the irredeemable horror of the European Holocaust only decades later, the defendants and Imperial Germany formed a German commercial enterprise, which cold-bloodedly employed explicitly-sanctioned extermination. This involved: The destruction of tribal culture and social organisation; the establishment of concentration camps, forced labour, medical experimentation, and the exploitation of women and children in order to advance the common financial interests of the companies in question».
A case in law
Counsel for Chief Riruako’s Herero People’s Reparations Corporation, are of the opinion that the plaintiffs have a case in law. «Well-recognised principles of District of Columbia law, United States Federal law and international law, provide this court with the jurisdiction to impose long-delayed remedies for the atrocities from which the defendants profited.» Plaintiffs Riruako and Professor Mburuma Kerina, prime movers behind the reparations claim, are direct descendants of people who suffered during the era of German extermination.
Speaking at the UN-convened World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, held in Durban, South Africa, in August, Germany’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Joschka Fischer, said: «At this conference, we must begin with the past. In many parts of the world, the pain of the persisting consequences of slavery and colonial exploitation still sits deep. Past injustice cannot be undone, but to recognize guilt, assume responsibility and face up to historical obligations may at least give back to the victims and their descendants, the dignity of which they were robbed. I should, therefore, like to do that here and now on behalf of the Federal Republic of Germany.»
The Herero reparations’ case has been described as a watershed that could open the floodgates to similar claims from other groups. At the very least, an apology should be tendered to the victims of past oppression.
At a recent Heroes’ Day commemoration held in Okahandja, Chief Riruako spoke strongly against the untold and unforgettable suffering and experience of the Herero at the hands of the Germans, resulting from the German-Herero war of 1904-1907. He said the Herero population was reduced by more than half, and many had fled to Botswana, South Africa and Angola.
Recalling that President Roman Herzog of Germany visited Namibia in 1998, Chief Riruako said: «When the President came, the issue of reparations was repeatedly raised, but the Germans argued that the tribe could not claim compensation, as international rules on the protection of rebels and civilians, were not in force at the time of the Herero uprising. The German government points to the fact that it is already the largest source of development funds for Namibia which could benefit the Herero. But to my knowledge, the Germans confiscated Herero property, Herero cattle, and other Herero livestock, and enslaved the Herero. Many Herero were exterminated on the orders of the Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II — orders given directly to Von Trotha. Those orders wiped out the whole nation. The Germans took whatever the Herero had, and distributed their booty among themselves. The Germans owe us. They dehumanised us. They dispossessed us. That’s why we are claiming reparations.»
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