THE HAGUE: In a speech hailed by activists as historic but devoid of specific plans for repair and reparations, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized on Monday on behalf of his government for the Netherlands' involvement in slavery and the slave trade.
Rutte apologized during a 20-minute speech at the National Archives that was met with silence from the audience.
A retiree named Waldo Koendjabhari, who was born in Suriname but has long lived in the Netherlands, said an apology before the speech would not be enough.
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Rutte said history is often "ugly, painful and even extremely shameful", describing how more than 600,000 African men, women and children were driven "like cattle", mostly east of Suriname in the colony.
Even though some activist organizations in the Netherlands and its former colonies urged Rutte to postpone the amnesty until 1 July of next year, the anniversary of the abolition of slavery 160 years ago, claiming that they had not been adequately consulted in the planning stages was given. speech, Rutte went ahead with it.
Because many slaves were made to work on plantations for ten years after abolition, activists believe that next year will mark the 150th anniversary.
Despite being invited, Michelle Esjas, director of The Black Archives and a participant in the activist group Black Manifesto, declined to attend the speech due to an "almost outrageous" lack of consultation with the Black community.
He acknowledged that it was a historic moment but regretted the lack of a detailed plan to make improvements. According to Esjas, there was no mention of repairs. Pretty words are fine, but it's unclear what the real next step will be.
Rutte's speech came as the Black Lives Matter movement and the police killing of a black man, George Floyd, in the US city of Minneapolis on May 25, 2020 brought the brutal colonial history of many countries under closer scrutiny Is.
In his speech, the Prime Minister referred to a report of a government-appointed advisory board that was released last year. The government must apologize and acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade, which took place from the 17th century until its abolition, were "crimes against humanity" committed directly or indirectly "under Dutch authority".
The report states that "ideas that emerged in this context" and also called institutional racism in the Netherlands "cannot be seen apart from centuries of slavery and colonialism."
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On Monday, Dutch ministers traveled to Suriname, the three Caribbean islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, which are recognized as special municipalities in the Netherlands, and the three former Dutch colonies of Aruba, Curacao, and Sint Maarten.
The NDP, the largest opposition party in Suriname, a small country in South America where Dutch plantation owners profited greatly from the use of slave labor, criticized the Dutch government for failing to adequately consult the country's former slaves . According to the activists in the nation what is really needed is compensation.
The NDP expresses its opposition to this unilateral decision-making process and observes that the Netherlands is happily assuming the role of mother country once again, according to a party statement.
The Netherlands will "pause to reflect on this painful history" during the year beginning July 1, 2023, which will be designated as a memorial year for slavery. And how this history continues to have a negative impact on the lives of many today," Sarkar claims.
In the late 1500s, the Dutch first became involved in the transatlantic slave trade, and by the mid-1600s, they were a significant player. Eventually, the Dutch West India Company rose to the status of the largest transatlantic slave trader, according to Carvan Fatih-Blak, an expert on Dutch colonial history and an assistant professor at Leiden.
Denmark, which colonized Ghana from the mid-17th to the mid-19th century, apologized to Ghana in 2018. Belgium's King Philippe expressed "deep regret" for the abuses in Congo in June.
Pope John Paul II issued an apology in 1992 for the church's complicity in slavery. The fight among Americans over the removal of statues of slaves in the South has been emotionally charged. The Netherlands has now joined them.
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But the momentous day was one of gloom for some members of the black community.
Esjas said, "It should have been a historic moment with a sweet taste. For many, it is a very beautiful and historic moment, but – as we say in Dutch – a bitter taste."