Germany moves toward recognizing as genocide colonial-era crackdown against Hereros in Namibia

BERLIN – German authorities are moving toward officially recognizing as a "genocide" the colonial-era crackdown in Namibia by German troops more than a century ago in which more than 65,000 ethnic Hereros were killed.

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said Friday that talks with Namibia on a joint declaration about those events are ongoing.

He said the German foreign minister's approach is following a parliamentary motion he signed three years ago, when in opposition, stating that "the war of destruction in Namibia from 1904 to 1908 was a war crime and genocide."

Parliament speaker Norbert Lammert wrote in an article for the Die Zeit newspaper this week that "measured by today's standards of international law, the putting down of the Herero uprising was genocide."