In the week that the Netherlands apologized for its slavery past, they came to the conclusion in Belgium that they are not going to do that.
The Black Pete has begun. Was the Palace behind it? The party presidents? Or just common sense? It is certain that Belgium will not make excuses for its colonial past. Two liberal parties, including that of Prime Minister De Croo, consider the risk of claims for reparations too great. As a result, the special commission of inquiry that interviewed 150 people over the past two years, had a scientific report of 700 pages written and made a study trip to central Africa, failed to produce a final report at the very last minute.
Special House Committee
The special parliamentary committee had to ‘clarify the role of the monarchy, the state, the church and business in about 140 years of the colonial past’. Everything necessary is known about that role. Leopold II, king of the Belgians between 1865 and 1909, managed to acquire the Congo Free State in 1885. Subsequently, the Congolese population was halved: thousands of people literally worked themselves to death.
With the proceeds, the ‘King Builder’, as he is known, financed impressive projects that still define the face of Brussels, such as the Cinquantenaire Park, the Justice Palace and the monumental Tervurenlaan.
No need for apologies
The study trip earlier this year was sobering: Congo, Rwanda and Burundi didn’t seem to need any apologies. At the time, Belgium had provided roads and hospitals in addition to misery. If it wanted to get involved in the former colonies, couldn’t it build some more infrastructure, that was the message.
Negotiations on the final report broke down this week on recommendation 69 of a total of 128 recommendations: ‘The House apologizes for colonial rule and exploitation, violence and atrocities, individual and collective human rights violations during that period, and the racism and the discrimination that accompanies it’. Recommendation 70 immediately stated that ‘this recognition does not imply legal liability and therefore cannot give rise to reparations.’ Other recommendations dealt with matters as diverse as opening up archives, university chairs, and dealing with statues.
‘Others’ got involved
Reconstructions now appear in the newspapers. Indeed, there was an agreement say committee chairman Wouter de Vriendt of the Green party. But ‘others’ suddenly got involved. He points to ‘party boards’ and ‘the Palace’. “I don’t know where he gets that from, we have always been very clear.” say committee member Goedele Liekens, the sexologist and former Miss Belgium who has been in parliament since 2019 on behalf of the liberal Open VLD. “We don’t want today’s taxpayers to have to pay for mistakes that happened in the past.”
‘What a sof’, writes the Ghent professor of international law Tom Ruys the standard. According to him, apologies are legally something very different from liability. The sad picture that prevails after two years of parliamentary work is that the Congolese, Burundian and Rwandan peoples are not worth apologizing for. Where Germany did manage to apologize for historical injustice in Namibia last year, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte did apologize for slavery on Monday, Belgium is left with a blush of shame on its cheeks.’
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