Former German chancellor Willy Brandt falls to his knees at the memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto; current German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden.
May 2021 is a month of dramatic changes in the actions of world powers. Could competition from China, Germany and Russia be forcing old powers to change their behavior in African relations, Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire, recognition of historical wrongs, fair compensations or vaccines?
Germany, in a stunning move last week, stated that it would apologize for, and recognize officially, the killing of Herero and Nama people in Namibia in 1904 to 1908, as genocide by German colonial troops in Africa and give a "financial package" rather than "reparations" of 1.1 billion euros. The package will go toward infrastructure, health care and training programs for the affected communities to be paid out over 30 years. If approved by both countries, German President Steinheimer will issue an official apology in front of the Namibian parliament.
President Macron of France last week "acknowledged" France's partial responsibility in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where some 800,000 Rwandans were killed by the French-speaking Hutu regime supported by France. He half-washed his hands though, saying, "France did not understand that while trying to prevent a regional conflict or a civil war, it was in fact standing by the side of a genocidal regime." The French human rights-loving egalite fraternite "did not understand" while nearly a million are killed, hundreds of thousands raped, impregnated or infected with HIV? In 1994? Macron also promised that "no suspected genocide perpetrator will be able to avoid justice," while France has been charged for years of allowing alleged Hutu culprits to leave Rwanda and live in France.
The US is running around trying to be the broker for peace after China offered to do it for the Israel-Palestinian conflict. So much in a rush that Secretary Blinken did not show up in a meeting of Asean ministers called by the US itself.
This change of heart came after China offered to broker peace over the US vetoing of a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire, supported by all other voting countries.