The Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN) has called on the Namibian nation to "enter into an honest debate and introspection at national level" in order to come to terms "with its painful history. Such a debate would allow Namibians to achieve "genuine and lasting reconciliation an nation building", ELCRN said. It referred to the recent discovery of mass graves in northern Namibia, which probably contain remains of PLAN fighters who were killed in action on 1 April 1989, the start of a transition period leading to Namibia’s independence. The church said the discoveries "pose a threat to national reconciliation".

The call to hold a debate on the cause of the mass graves is very different to the stance of the Namibian government, which through justice minister Pendukeni Ivula-Ithana made it known that a debate or reconciliation commission like in South Africa would not take place in Namibia. Even president Hifikepunye Pohamba said last weekend at the Old Location in Windhoek during wreath-laying ceremony, that "old wounds should not be opened up".

Bishop Kameeta said that the synod also urged the government to come up with clear-cut criteria for the expropriation of commercial farms. "These criteria should not (be) a response to labour unrests or to sometimes unjustified public emotions", Kameeta urged.

Last weekend church representatives also attended a commemoration ceremony on Shark Island at Lüderitz in remembrance of hundreds of Nama- and Herero-speaking Namibians, who were imprisoned by German colonial authorities after uprisings during 1904 and 1905. Many of them died on the rough climate.