The Dutch prime minister is refusing to officially apologise for the Netherlands’ history of slavery because it risks dividing society, despite pressure to do so from his coalition partners in government.
Mark Rutte, who was speaking at parliament in The Hague as the Netherlands marked 157 years since it abolished slavery, said the time was not right.
“For some people that goes too far. Can you hold people alive today responsible for the distant past?” Mr Rutte said.
“And with that, apologies carry the risk of polarising society instead of giving rise to dialogue and inclusion.”
His comments followed a government announcement that a nationwide conversation would be created to look at the country’s links to slavery, including as plantation owners in Dutch colonies in the Caribbean.
The assessment of the Netherlands’ slave-trading past will focus on “how the slavery history still influences our daily lives,” Education Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven said. “I hope that it will open the eyes of many Dutch people, young and old,” she added.
Amsterdam’s Mayor, Femke Halsema, said the Black Lives Matter movement had created “an unstoppable new people's movement”. The city is investigating its own links with slavery.
“It's a movement that is not destroying traditions, but helping to improve traditions and create new traditions that doesn't wipe out our past, but adds new histories,” she said.
More than 10,000 people descended on Amsterdam in support of the Black Lives Matter movement last month.
In June, Mr Rutte acknowledged that more needed to be done to rid the country of racism, in comments following the global outrage over the death of George Floyd in the United States.
“What you have witnessed for a while in the Netherlands is that the horrible death of George Floyd has stirred up a lot. This triggers something where we say: ‘We really need to stamp out racism,’” Mr Rutte said after meeting with activists.
"What can you as a society do to combat this poison on the one hand, and at the same time ensure that people are as well-prepared as possible to be successful in this society?"
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
TECH%20SPECS%3A%20APPLE%20IPHONE%2014%20PLUS
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The Word for Woman is Wilderness
Abi Andrews, Serpent’s Tail
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
High profile Al Shabab attacks
- 2010: A restaurant attack in Kampala Uganda kills 74 people watching a Fifa World Cup final football match.
- 2013: The Westgate shopping mall attack, 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers and four gunmen are killed.
- 2014: A series of bombings and shootings across Kenya sees scores of civilians killed.
- 2015: Four gunmen attack Garissa University College in northeastern Kenya and take over 700 students hostage, killing those who identified as Christian; 148 die and 79 more are injured.
- 2016: An attack on a Kenyan military base in El Adde Somalia kills 180 soldiers.
- 2017: A suicide truck bombing outside the Safari Hotel in Mogadishu kills 587 people and destroys several city blocks, making it the deadliest attack by the group and the worst in Somalia’s history.
