Guard the Marinedenkmal – Community activist claims a group wants to destroy genocide evidence at the monument

Swakopmund community activist Laidlaw Peringanda, who is also the founder of the Back to Germany Activists Movement, is calling on the Namibian Police to guard the Marinedenkmal in Swakopmund and “not let anyone near it” – be it residents, government officials or tourists.
Peringanda has made this call at the office of the Inspector General of the Namibian Police, Sebastian Ndeitunga. He calls on the head of the police force to place officers at the site and guard the monument around the clock. Even though he sent a communiqué to Ndeitunga with his request about two weeks ago, calling him to immediate action, he has not received a response yet.
Peringanda made the call after he “received very serious information from our reliable sources that some Germans want to intentionally obliterate the 3 bronze plates on the statue.” These plates contain engraved Names of German soldiers, places, dates, months and years “by which Germany acknowledged the 1904 Genocide.”
Peringanda has been lobbying to have the Marinedenkmal removed since 2015. He wants the monument to be sent back to Germany as he believes that is where it belongs. To emphasize his point he also made a case at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to have the monument removed.
“The German statue has now become an ‘exhibit’ at the ICC,” he said to namib times. Peringanda fears that tampering with the monument at this stage could sabotage the case. “There are people who want to sabotage the reparation issue.
We want to prevent a situation like in Windhoek, where the monument (the Reiterdenkmal) was removed. We want the court to first pronounce itself,” he said.
Peringanda therefore calls on the police to guard the monument until the case is finalized, no matter how long it takes. The officers should prevent anybody from getting closer than five metres to the Marinedenkmal, no matter if it is government officials or any person. “They must stay away from the monument otherwise they tamper with the evidence,” he said.