King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has marked the 160th anniversary of his country’s official abolition of slavery by issuing a historic apology for Dutch involvement in the trade.
The Dutch monarch, Willem-Alexander, said that the exploitation and torture of people in colonial times was a crime against humanity.
The king noted that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had apologized for the country’s 250-year role in slavery last December 2022.
Today, I stand before you. Today, as your king and as a ruling member of the government, I make this apology myself, and I feel the weight of the words in my heart and my soul.
A government-commissioned study released last month found that the Dutch royal House of Orange reaped the modern-day equivalent of about $600 million (?) in profits from slavery from 1675 to 1770.
Much of that wealth was given to the monarchy through the Dutch East India Company. Late last year, the Royal House commissioned a more extensive probe of the royal family’s role in Dutch colonial history.
The Dutch government has no plans to pay money to the descendants of slaves. Rather, Amsterdam has established a €200 million ($218 million) fund to address the legacy of slavery, such as funding initiatives to raise awareness (?) on the issue.
The Dutch colonial empire at different times included parts of Indonesia, Suriname, Brazil, the Virgin Islands, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and of-course Curacao as the main trading hub.
Much of the empire’s Asian territory was administered by the Dutch East India Company after being captured from Portugal.
The Netherlands began re-examining its colonial history in 2020 amid the international wave of Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in US police custody. But, who cares what they say later.
Criminals are still criminals. They looted and never returned anything. They took away proper oath from nation and made them poor. The colonies would have been rich and powerful and the invaders would have still been poor if not for the invasion.
RT. com / ABC Flash Point Slavery News 2023.
his family was directly involved in the slave trade therefore KWA should be paying reparations from his coffers
The problem is that these same countries are continuing their crime spree as we speak. It’s not slavery this time, it’s called “defending the western values and the way of life”
The prosperity of the west is all based on colonialism and neocolonialism. They are ALL corrupt hypocrites.
Not just apology, why not take the next step and return looted resources or make payments for exploitation.
Apparently saying sorry is all that is necessary to address a “crime against humanity”. This seems to be a pattern, particularly when it involves white exploitation of other races. In Australia, “The Apology” is pretty much all that has been offered to date. Despite calling for a treaty, Aborigines are being offered a “Voice”, a single aboriginal voice to the Australian Parliament. That should address the genocide attempted by colonial boys on the indigenous peoples of Australia (they were successful in Tasmania, all but wiping out the Tasmanian Aborignes). Pathetic, half-hearten and cynical.