Tuesday, Aug 17, 2004
Germany apologises for genocide
Pretoria: Germany apologised for the first time on Sunday for a colonial-era genocide, which killed 65,000 Herero persons in what is now Namibia.
"We Germans accept our historic and moral responsibility and the guilt incurred by Germans at that time," said Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Development Aid Minister, at a ceremony to mark the 100th anniversary of the Hereros' 1904-1907 uprising against their rulers. "The atrocities committed at that time would have been termed genocide," she said.
Although she ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants — a civil case has been brought by relatives of those who died — she promised aid, particularly in land reform.
"Everything I have said was an apology from the German Government,'' Ms. Wieczorek-Zeul said to the delight of a crowd of 1,000 persons. The killings happened in 1904, after the Herero people revolted against oppressive German colonial rule. General Lothar von Trotha was sent to what was then South-West Africa to put down the uprising and instructed his troops to wipe out the tribe. —
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.