Scores of Namibians staged a protest in the capital Windhoek on Tuesday against an agreement reached in May by the government of the southwest African country and Germany over compensation for a 1900s genocide committed by Berlin.
Germany acknowledged for the first time last May that it committed genocide against the Herero and Nama indigenous peoples of Namibia between 1904 and 1908.
It reached an agreement with Namibian negotiators by proposing a financial programme of €1.1 billion over 30 years for land acquisition, road construction or water supply.
The pact was, however, criticised by the Namibian opposition and a group of traditional leaders representing the Herero and Nama tribes of Namibia who denounced it as a “cheap deal” compared to the “€75 billion in pensions and social benefits paid to Jews” by the Nazi regime since 1949 years after the end of World War II.
On Tuesday members of various political parties and traditional authorities marched through the streets of Windhoek, demanding that the governing SWAPO Party sets aside the agreement until it has adequately consulted all stakeholders.
The demonstration started in the Herero location in Windhoek’s Katutura township, with the protesters later moving to the capital’s central business district where the picketed outside parliament building and demanded to have an audience with Speaker of Parliament Peter Katjavivi.
Among the demonstrators were members of the opposition Landless People’s Movement and Popular Democratic Movement, which have been very vocal against the agreement entered into by the two governments.
JN/APA