Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has offered a formal apology for his country’s involvement in 250 years of slavery, calling it a “crime against humanity” in a speech in the Hague on Monday.
“Today on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the past actions of the Dutch state,” Rutte said, stating that the past “cannot be erased, only faced up to.”
He noted that although nobody alive today “bears any personal guilt” or responsibility for slavery, the Netherlands as a state is still guilty of having “encouraged and profited” from it.
“People were commodified, exploited and traded in the name of the Dutch state,” he continued, adding that slavery had caused “great suffering, that continues to affect the lives of people now…And for that, on behalf of the Dutch state, I apologize.”
The prime minister’s remarks come amid a wider reconsideration of the Netherlands’ colonial past after the country set up a national advisory panel following the 2020 killing of George Floyd in the US. While Rutte has ruled out reparations, the Dutch government is expected to set up a €200 million ($211 million) educational fund, as well as providing some €27 million for a slavery museum.
Read more EU country to apologize for slavery – media
The Netherlands formally abolished slavery in 1863. The slave trade was considered to be the driving force behind the Dutch economic and cultural “golden age.”
The above article is from RT. Not only the golden age of Netherland was due to slavery, the 'golden age' or 'age of darkness' of the USA was also due to slavery, and so were the golden ages of England, France, Germany and many European countries. And these white savages are going around preaching and lecturing the world on humanity and human rights, accusing others of crimes that they themselves committed while other nations did not.
How many daft people still believe that whites are angels, the paragon of virtues, the protectors of human rights and democracy?
Comments in RT
How is that countries that committed so much atrocities, rape and pillage etc. are the countries that lead the world and countries that never did that are still " conquered" by so called leaders, how in the heck we could go forward being lead by bad ones, mind boggling
The_Truth_Hurts
Apology without any form of reparation is a non starter. You made billion of dollars on slavery and dehumanized a lot of black people and now you want to just give them 211 millions of dollar while you are given Ukraine billions of dollars. Why is given Ukraine billions of dollar better than the given it to the people you abused for centuries?
john weber
Apologizing by these Dutch politicians means as little as Japanese politicians bow to the people when an atrocity committed, sanctioning themselves with the reparation to the victims maybe worth something.
Ulla Lenhardt
What about the Dutch financed Nazi-propaganda on Ukrainian TV
(hormadske tv or similar) since 2014, in which they openly called for the extermination of 1.5 Million people of the Donbass, for national Ukrainian interests?? More than 10.000 we're killed, 80% civilians according to UN numbers...
why apologize for the Worlds Greatest Terrorist, Amerika should get on her knees and beg ... for all its Atrocities amerikas gov caused world wide no1else!!!!!!!!!!!
Jjackston Burg
And for the thieving exploitation, wholesale rape and murderous brutalization of Indonesia?
No comments:
Post a Comment