The Namibian Ambassador to Germany is locked in a war of words with Merkel officials amid claims he owes thousands in debts and is refusing to pay up due to his diplomatic status.
Namibian Ambassador Andreas Guibeb, 65, has racked up large debts in Germany which he refuses to pay despite losing court cases initiated against him, according to local media.
Reports said that the Friedrich Schiller University in the German city of Jena agreed to a research contract with ‘Friends of Namibia’ in 2016, which is represented by Ambassador Guibeb.
However, the University is reportedly still owed 34,500 EUR (30,482 GBP) from the organisation.
In May 2018, a court battle ended with an arrest warrant being issued against Guibeb, although the order could not be acted upon due to international laws granting him diplomatic immunity.
A university spokesman said: “Our payment claims were asserted directly and judicially, but these appear to be unenforceable due to Mr Guibeb’s diplomatic status.”
According to local media, it is far from the only debt which the ambassador refuses to pay.
The company ‘Discurs Communication’ took over the Namibian Embassy’s media work, website and project support, but a sum of 46,410 EUR (41,010 GBP) still remains unpaid, according to reports.
Discurs chief Juergen Scheurer said: “The court informed us that the asset penalty is void due to the diplomatic status. Therefore, we also had to pay the court and other team’s legal fees in the amount of 2,465 EUR (2,178 GBP).”
MP Olav Gutting of Angela Merkel’s Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) brought up the case in parliament.
Gutting said: “Someone who has not understood the principle of ‘pacta sunt servanda’ – agreements must be kept – cannot seriously expect German companies to invest in Namibia.”
However, Ambassador Guibeb has dismissed the reports as “fake news”.
He said: “It is a non-story, fake news, with clear propaganda intent, maybe against the reparation talks between the German and Namibian governments. There is no such a thing as an arrest warrant – against the Namibian ambassador – as claimed.”
He also blamed the CDU for politicising the issue, saying the media reports were engineered to undermine talks about human rights violations against the Herero and Nama ethnic groups when Namibia was still a German colony.
In what is known as the ‘Herero and Namaqua genocide’, between 30,000 and 110,000 Namibians died at the hands of German colonial troops, in concentration camps or after being driven into the desert.
In July 2015, the German government officially designated the act as genocide, but refused to consider reparations.
Diplomatic immunity has been a frequent bone of contention between host countries and diplomatic communities.
In London, it was reported that foreign governments have a whopping 116.5 million GBP in outstanding congestion charges which 145 embassies and commissions refuse to pay.
The American embassy reportedly owes the local government 12.5 million GBP having racked up more than 100,000 outstanding tickets within central London.
According to reports, the Japanese Embassy still owes a total of 8.5 million GBP, followed by the Nigerian High Commission in third place which still needs to pay 7 million GBP in outstanding fines.
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Story By: Koen Berghuis, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
