Namibia groups sue Germany for alleged genocide

TWO indigenous groups have filed a class action suit in New York against Germany seeking reparations for an alleged genocide by German colonial rulers over a century ago in what is now Namibia.

The suit filed by the Ovaherero and Nama people on Thursday in New York also demands that their representatives be included in negotiations between Germany and Namibia on the issue.

The two countries have been in talks about a joint declaration on the 1904-05 massacres, although Germany has refused to acknowledge that a genocide occurred.

The plaintiffs said they were bringing the class action suit “on behalf of all Ovaherero and Nama worldwide, seeking reparations and compensation for the genocide” suffered at the hands of the German colonial authorities.

The dispute harks back to a period when South West Africa, now Namibia, was a German colony.

The suit alleges that from 1885 to 1903 about a quarter of Ovaherero and Nama lands were taken without compensation by German settlers with the explicit consent of German colonial authorities.

It also claims they turned a blind eye to the rape by colonists of Ovaherero and Nama women and girls, and the use of forced labour.

The Ovaherero rose up in early 1904, followed by the Nama, in an insurrection crushed by German imperial troops. The suit alleges that as many 100 000 people died. — AFP