Windhoek - The remains of 27 people murdered during Germany's
colonial rule of present-day Namibia have arrived back in the
country, two days after an official handover ceremony in Berlin.
"I stand here ashamed, knowing that this constituted
genocide," Michelle Muentefering, a senior official in the German
Foreign Ministry, said in the Namibian capital Windhoek on Friday,
asking for forgiveness "from the bottom of my heart."
"I cannot undo the work of our ancestors," she added, speaking of the
mass killing of members of the Herero and Nama tribes in what was
then German South West Africa.
Tens of thousands of indigenous people were massacred during a series
of protests against colonial rule between 1904 and 1908 or died from
hunger and exposure in prison camps.
The paramount chief of the Hereros, Vekuii Rukoro, repeated his
demand at the ceremony in Windhoek for the German government to
officially apologise for the atrocities
Speaking of the returned remains, he said, "After 114 years, we say
welcome back home but let the battle for restorative justice
continue."
At Wednesday's ceremony, the German government returned 19 skulls as
well as bones and skin to a Namibian delegation. They are to be put
on display at a museum in the African country.
The German government first recognised the killings as genocide in
2015. Germany has never formally apologised for the massacres or
offered direct reparations.
Members of the Herero and Nama ethnic groups are currently fighting a
class action lawsuit in a US court demanding reparations.
Namibia was a German colony between 1884 and 1915.