I am deeply shocked about the misleading article which appeared in today’s Namibian under the headline „Namibia, Germany reparation talks off". In this article a completely distorted and wrong picture of my interview is given. I have at no moment referred to what your reporter called "Reparation talks". I assume that he refers to the "Special Initiative" proposed by the German Government. Let me clarify that at no point of time any such talks had been planned for next week with regard to this issue. The German Government fully respects and understands the decision of the Namibian Government to postpone the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Special Initiative.

In my interview I only referred to the annual bilateral Government Negotiations on Development Cooperation which were scheduled for this week. The German side has proposed to hold these talks in the first half of next year. This proposal was accepted by the Namibian Government as both sides feel the need to further discuss on various cooperation projects to be committed in 2006, especially in the light of new proposals by the Namibian side made during the State Visit of President Pohamba. The German Government has informed the Namibian Government that for 2005 it has increased its annual commitment to 13, 5 Mio. Euro (ca. 108 Mio. N$) from 12 Mio. Euro or 96 Mio.N$ in 2004. During the state visit of President Pohamba the German side has indicated that it is prepared to further increase the assistance in the years to come in order to eventually reach a double amount.

The focus of my interview was to highlight the very successful state visit of H. E. President Hifikepunye Pohamba to Germany which has given fresh impulses to our excellent bilateral relations. There was no word about this in your article!

Yours sincerely, Wolfgang Massing

German Ambassador