Representatives of the Namibian peoples of the Herero and nama has sued new York lawsuit against Germany, seeking compensation for the mass extermination of their fellow tribesmen in the period 1904-1908 years the troops of the German Empire. In 1904, when the current Namibia was a German colony called South West Africa, inhabiting the tribes of the Herero and the nama revolted against the German colonial administration, which were killed 120 Germans. The response of the metropolis were disproportionately cruel. Money Deutsche Bank Empire sent to Namibia 14-strong expeditionary force, Colonel Lothar von trota (Lothar von Trotha), who already had experience in the suppression of the uprising in East Africa (Tanzania). Using guns, von Trotta defeated the rebels, armed mostly with spears and bows and arrows.
But the Colonel did not stop — he announced to all the people of the Herero outside the law. “The Herero are no longer German subjects, was published by him an ultimatum. — Within the German borders every Herero representative, with or without arms, with or without cattle, will be shot, I will never take any women or children get to sail them back to the people or give the order to shoot. These are my words to the Herero people”.
Then the same sanctions he extended to the peoples of nama and Damara. In the end, the victims of the punitive expedition von trota steel, some 65,000 Herero (about 4/5 of all workers) and about 10,000 nama (nearly half of these people).
The question of payment by Germany of compensation raised in the 1980’s, the paramount chief of the Herero, the leader of the National democratic party, member of Parliament of Namibia Kuaima Riruako (Kuaima Riruako). A graduate of new York University, he initiated a contract with the new York law firm that sued Germany sued for $ 4 billion. However, to achieve he managed only a formal apology from Germany — officially the German government the fact of the genocide is initially denied, despite the fact that in 1983 he was recognized as such by UN General Assembly resolution.
The position of the first Bonn, then Berlin was the following: since the events in German South-West Africa relate to the years 1904-1908, and the UN Convention “On prevention of the crime of genocide” came into force only in 1951, giving it retroactive is contrary to the fundamentals of international law (it is noteworthy that in the summer of 2016, Germany has recognized the genocide the killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire in the period of 1915-1916).
In September 2015 the foreign Ministers of Germany and Namibia’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier (Frank-Walter Steinmeier) and netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah) agreed to establish a joint German-Namibian Commission, which will discuss political, financial and cultural of Germany’s responsibility for the events of 1904-1908 years. The chief negotiator on the German side, Steinmeier was appointed Ruprecht Polenz (Ruprecht Polenz), who held the entire legislature period of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel (Angela Merkel) as Chairman of the Bundestag Committee on foreign Affairs.
By the summer of 2016 the issue of recognition of Germany’s genocide of the peoples of the Herero and nama moved from a dead point. It was reported that Germany intends to formally apologize to Namibia for the massacres in the former German South-West Africa, that the negotiations should be completed by the end of the year, a joint statement of the governments and parliaments of Germany and Namibia that in this statement the killings of tens of thousands of Herero and nama will be characterized as a genocide, after which the President of Germany Joachim gauck (Joachim Gauck) will bring a formal apology.
But along with the fact Germany refused to pay compensation for the genocide, saying that investing in the Namibian economy for many millions of euros. This position is Berlin became a stumbling block in seemingly quite cleared the path of negotiations with the Windhoek. And in October 2016 Ruprecht Polenz said that they are postponed at least until September 2017.
And suddenly in early January 2017 as a bolt from the blue came the message that representatives of the peoples of the Herero and nama alone, without regard to the German-Namibian government Commission, filed in U.S. District court in Manhattan in new York a lawsuit against Germany (under American law, foreigners can apply to the courts of the United States, even if the event occurred outside the territory of States).
