Invitation to join the campaign “Genocide is not time-barred”-05.03.2024 at 5pm
Dear All,
Civil society groups from Germany, in close cooperation with Ovaherero and Nama representatives, contributed to putting the genocide on the political agenda in Germany through the “Genocide is not time-barred” campaign, among other things, and to highlighting the need for the negotiations that led to the Joint Declaration.
As is now well known, these negotiations were anything but satisfactory for the descendants of the genocide and the JD lacks everything that could make genuine reconciliation possible.
Therefore, since its announcement, our efforts for a full recognition of the genocide, reparations and reconciliation have entered a new phase. Since 2021, many groups and initiatives have tried to make the clear criticism and rejection of this agreement by representatives of the Ovaherero and Nama heard. Now is the time to join forces and launch a high-profile campaign together.
Time is pressing, because after the Namibian government under the leadership of President H. Geingob, who died at the beginning of February, did not know how to deal with the JD for a long time, interim President Nangolo Mbumba has appointed Peya Mushelenga as the new Minister for International Relations and Cooperation. In the press release accompanying his appointment, the most important task for him is “to conclude the negotiations with Germany on the genocide and reach a consensus on the model of reparations”. As the JD does not use the term “reparations”, it remains unclear what is meant by this task. We want to use this new “window of opportunity” and make our demands more visible in parallel to the ongoing efforts in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana. In Germany, it is also important to hold the Greens, who supported our demands as an opposition party and now lead the AA, to account.
We have been trying to activate the old campaign for several months now. With the support of an external consultant, we have devised a concept that has been agreed with the affected communities in Namibia. With the central demand of recognition of the genocide without ifs and buts, it is now time to go public and put this demand into practice. In order to build up more pressure, we would like to bring together old and new allies.
To this end, we cordially invite you to join us online on Tuesday, March 5 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. to implement the next steps.
Zoom connection information:
https://zoom.us/j/95320877208?pwd=VnhFOTJwTlcvTzA4RVkxU2s4TnVjQT09
Meeting ID: 953 2087 7208
Identification code: 064317
Sincerely,
Team Black Academy
