Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) Member of Parliament (MP) Isaak Vries has said if government accepts the genocide agreement with the German government, it will be disrespectful to the sacrifices of Herero and Nama ancestors and their descendants.

Vries made the remarks on Wednesday in the National Assembly while contributing to the 1904-08 genocide debate underway in Parliament on the joint declaration agreement between the Namibian and German governments.

He said the Swapo-led government converted the genocide issue into a “begging instrument” for funds from Germany, but the descendants will not beg because Germany knows what it did as imperial force against the Hereros and Namas and are aware of the impact their brutal actions have had.

“It alarms me and it should pain anyone with a conscience to see that Swapo is pushing the descendants of the Nama/Herero genocide to champion the acceptance of the so-called joint declaration. The dilution of the history of the 1904-1908 genocide amounts to trafficking with the dignity of those MPs who are now being forced to sell out their ancestors in the parliament building which was constructed with the slave labour of their ancestors,” said Vries.

He said the agreement should be rejected with the contempt it deserves, because the fight for justice is not only for Namas and Hereros, but for all Namibians.

Swapo party MP Fenni Nanyeni, who also contributed to the debate, said saying the Swapo-led government is a sellout is demeaning to all Namibians who fought for the liberation of the country.

He stated that all Namibians should defend the efforts by the government to have recognised the outcry of the people, as history was written and can never be rewritten. People must embrace the spirit of oneness as given and passed down by ancestral heroes and heroines who paved the way to freedom, Nanyeni said.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency