Namibian President Hage Geingob says his government has turned down Germanys offer of compensation for colonial-era killings, citing the act as not acceptable. President Geingob on Thursday August 13, said in a statement that Germany has continued to call efforts to seek redress with the government and those affected in the conflict healing of wounds instead of reparations. Statistics from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum indicate that German troops killed up to 80,000 of Herero and Nama people in Namibia between 1904 and 1908 in response to an anti-colonial uprising However, according to historians, the bloody conflict happened when the Herero indigenous people revolted against colonial troops over land seizures. According to CNN, Germany, which today gives development aid to Namibia, offered its first formal apology for the conflict in 2004. The current offer for reparations made by the German Government remains an outstanding issue and is not acceptable to the Namibian Government, the president said Descendants of the few survivors are still seeking $4 billion compensation from the German government for what they claim was an orchestrated campaign of extermination that preceded Germanys genocidal policies of World War II. And for many years the Namibian government had asked Germany to call the war genocide and commit to reparations to the affected tribes. Even though Germany has acknowledged and expressed regrets for its imperial troops role in the conflict, it has refused to pay compensation. In the statement on Tuesday, President Geingob said both governments have agreed to a political settlement, and its representative will continue to negotiate a revised offer.
