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View all search resultsDutch PM apologizes for 250 years of slavery
Many former colonies wary of timing of apology.
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D
utch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologized for 250 years of the Netherlands’ involvement in slavery, calling it a “crime against humanity”.
The apology comes almost 150 years after the end of slavery in the European country's overseas colonies, which included Suriname and islands like Curacao and Aruba in the Caribbean and Indonesia.
“Today on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the past actions of the Dutch state,” Rutte said in a speech in The Hague.
“We, living in the here and now, can only recognize and condemn slavery in the clearest terms as a crime against humanity,” he said.
Dutch ministers have traveled to seven former colonies in South America and the Caribbean for the event.
Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch finance minister and deputy prime minister, said on an official visit to Suriname last week that a “process” would begin leading up to “another incredibly important moment on July 1 next year”.
Descendants of Dutch slavery will then celebrate 150 years of liberation from slavery in an annual celebration called Keti Koti (Breaking the Chains) in Surinamese.
