The Prime Minister described the trafficking, formerly practiced by his country, “crime against humanity”.
by Jean-Pierre Stroobants (Brussels, correspondent)
He was not really favorable, because less than 40 % of his fellow citizens approved this idea and because he did not want to offer the far right of Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet the stick to beat. In one of these reversals of which he has the secret, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, revised his position on Monday, December 19. “I thought that slavery was a story that is far behind us, I was wrong, explained the liberal leader in an official discourse held in the national archives, in The Hague. We can only recognize and condemn slavery, in the clearest terms, as a crime against humanity. “
On behalf of his government and the State, faced with representatives of various communities, he therefore apologized “posthumously to all slaves around the world who suffered (…); their daughters and sons and sons And to all their descendants “. Three quarters of Dutch people of Surinamese, West Indian or Indonesian origin hoped for such a remarks.
Various meetings would explain the Prime Minister’s journey. In the summer of 2020, a black woman posted in front of her offices and had started a hunger strike to protest against the discrimination of which she said she was a victim. Mr. Rutte had conversed at length with her and convinced her to put an end to her action. He then summoned the representatives of various communities to meet with them and went to Suriname. During this trip, a resident told her how much young people always wondered about their origins and history. These meetings, according to a diplomat, would have strongly marked it.
“remorse” of the authorities
“Centuries of oppression and exploitation affect the present, in racist stereotypes, discrimination, social inequality,” he insisted on Monday. This point contrasts strongly with that of Jan Peter Balkenende, his Christian Democratic predecessor, who, in 2006, still greeted the “dynamism” of the Dutch colonizers and their ability to “look beyond borders”. A formula often used by the Dutchman, proud of a past whose dark side they have long ignored.
It is not to hit them and spare their liberal party, very reserved on the issue, that in 2021, a year after having offered the Jewish community excuses for the role of the Dutch authorities during the Second World War , Mr. Rutte, however, said his skepticism about apologies to the colonized. He claimed to want to “think”, believing that it was very “complex” to express themselves on such old facts.
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