Netherlands to make official apology for colonial-era slavery
About 150 years after the end of slavery in its former colonies, the Netherlands is set to officially apologise for this injustice on Monday.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte will give a speech on slavery at the National Archives in The Hague later.
The cabinet representatives are also scheduled to speak in the former Dutch colony of Suriname in South America and on the six Caribbean islands that still belong to the Dutch kingdom today.
The Netherlands was once the third-largest colonial power in the world and enslaved an estimated 500,000 people over 200 years.
They were mainly abducted from West Africa, sold and forced to work on the plantations in Suriname and the Antilles.
The Dutch kingdom was one of the last countries in Europe to abolish slavery on July 1, 1863, officially, but the actual end came only in 1873.
Descendants of slaves and inhabitants of the colonies, especially, had, at that time, campaigned for an apology for years, but Mr Rutte’s government refused to do so.
Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States rekindled the debate about coming to terms with the past.
A government-appointed commission declared in July that the Netherlands had to apologise and actively work to combat the consequences, such as racism.
Slavery is a crime against humanity, and the state has to recognise the “historical injustice.’’
(dpa/NAN)
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