Member of the German Parliament Charlotte Neuhauser has called on the German Government to pay reparations to the Nama and Ovaherero people who were victims of the 1904-1908 genocide and not the proposed €1.1 billion, which is equivalent to N$20.4 billion.  

She made this call at a press conference held in Keetmanshoop on Saturday.

At the meeting organised by the Nama Traditional Leaders Association (NTLA), Charlotte Neuhauser, a member of the German Parliament or Bundestag and representative of the political party Die Linke, was in attendance alongside Julia Manek from No Amnesty for Genocide.

The aim of the press conference was to update the general public, particularly the Nama community, on the latest developments on the ongoing genocide negotiations following the recent visit to Berlin by the NTLA delegation led by Gaob Daniel Frederick and the Ovaherero Traditional Authority (OTA), where they participated in a plenary debate in the German Bundestag on the recognition of the genocide committed by the German Empire.

Neuhauser said that the motion, tabled in cooperation with NTLA and OTA, calls on the German government to provide clear and unconditional recognition of the genocide committed against the Nama and Ovaherero people, issue a sincere apology and provide meaningful reparations.

She further said they also demand that the affected communities be directly represented in the negotiations and for the return of land that remains under the white settler ownership rather than the proposed €1.1 billion as development aid to the Namibian government

The motion is currently before the German Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee for further consideration.    

"The German government has one motive when it comes to the genocide: to pay the €1.1 billion to the Namibian state as development aid and to never talk about again reparations or restorative justice ever again. We know our government; we know the motives; we know there is no real commitment to pay for the atrocious crimes for the genocide that were committed in the Germany name and that is something we need to be very clear about. What is needed for real restorative justice is that Germany pays reparations."

Gaob Frederick has echoed the same sentiments and described the motion as an important political development and that this is just the first phase towards achieving restorative justice for the two tribes and that affected people of the Nama and Ovaherero people must be equally represented at the genocide negotiation table.  

"Recognition must include the voices of the affected people. The genocide was committed against the Nama and Ovaherero people; our descendants cannot be treated merely as observers while government decide what recognition ,justice and repairs should be meaningful for them."