Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte issued an official apology on Monday for the Netherlands’ historic involvement in slavery for 250 years, saying it was a crime committed against humanity and acknowledging the continuing consequences of slavery on the present.
In his nationally broadcast speech, Rutte said: “Today I apologize. For centuries, the Dutch state and its representatives have allowed and encouraged slavery and have benefited from it.
“It is true that no one alive today is personally to blame for slavery… (however) the Dutch state is responsible for the immense suffering that has been inflicted on those who were enslaved and their descendants,” he added.
Rutte made the official apology amid a growing reconsideration of the Netherlands’ colonial past, including steps taken to return looted wealth and the country’s ongoing fight against racism.
The prime minister’s apology in The Hague faced resistance from groups who argued that King Willem-Alexander should have issued an apology on July 1, 2023 in the former colony Suriname to mark the 160th anniversary of Dutch abolition. Roy Kaikusi Groenberg, of the Dutch Afro-Surinamese organization Honor and Recovery Foundation, said: “It takes two to tango; apologies are due.”
He added that it was a mistake not to sufficiently consult the activists who have worked for years to turn the tide of discussion in the country. “The way the government is handling this, it looks like a neocolonial belch,” Groenberg said.
Prime Minister Rutte accepted that the announcement was clumsily handled, adding that the Dutch government is sending representatives to Suriname along with the Caribbean islands that are part of the Netherlands with varying degrees of autonomy: Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, Curaçao, Saba, Aruba. and Bonaire.
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Sint Maarten Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs said they would not accept any apology without discussion. Rutte issued the apology in her response to a national advisory panel that was established after the murder of George Floyd in the United States in 2020.
The panel declared that the Dutch’s involvement in slavery led to crimes against humanity and recommended an apology and reparations in 2021. Rutte said the government accepts the panel’s conclusions, including that slavery is a crime against humanity. .
(With contributions from agencies)
