The leader of NUDO accused Germany of discrimination after that country refused to renegotiate its offer of €1 billion for the 1904–08 Nama/OvaHerero genocide.
Utjiua Muinjangue says Germany has created a precedent by agreeing to demands for renegotiating compensation for crimes against humanity and therefore should do so with Namibia as well.
Muinjangue cited as an example an order by Konrad Adenauer, a former German chancellor, to re-negotiate settlements with Jewish groups as a stipend for atrocities committed during the Holocaust.
Furthermore, Muinjangue says that the country did so with descendants of the Armenian genocide, which occurred 8 years after the Nama/OvaHerero genocide in 1904-08.
"Germany has created an international precedent because when they started to negotiate with the state of Israel and the 23 groups of Jews, the Jews were unhappy with the package that Germany offered them, and a certain Dr Nahum Goldman reached out to the then chancellor, Konrad Adenauer, and the claims conference was put on hold and the negotiation re-started. So why can they not do it with us?"
She also rejected the draft declaration, saying its context is legally evasive and does not reflect any genuine remorse.
"The Holocaust took place before the 1948 convention of the UN, but you are paying them and you have recognized that it is a genocide. Look at the Armenian genocide; it happened in 1915, maybe eight years after our genocide, and the same German government has acknowledged that as a genocide, so why is it like that when it comes to us, we are hearing that there was no law?"
Muinjangue, when quizzed on the status of the government's role during negotiations with Germany, stated that the National Assembly, by virtue of its motion that facilitated the process, ought to be the rightful custodian of any negotiations.
"This issue was brought to parliament, parliament was left in the dark just to hear that there is a joint declaration, so we were in the process as parliamentarians, and if you look at the Jews case for example there was an announcement by the chancellor those years back in their Bundestag, they did not take it into their Bundestag, but they wanted the Namibian parliament to discuss it, so where is it binding for the Germans?"
Dr Muinjange recently returned from Germany on the invitation of a research firm that seeks to explore the scientific studies on the 1904–08 Nama/OvaHerero genocide in Namibia.