The Government of the Netherlands apologizes for slavery: "It was a crime against humanity"

• Europe The Netherlands reopens its past as a slave kingdom

The Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, pronounced this Monday

by descendants of people enslaved by the Kingdom of the Netherlands between 1621 and 1873: "Slavery was a crime against humanity", and "I apologize on behalf of the Government" for the role of the Dutch state.

In a speech at the National Archives in The Hague, Rutte spoke of a system that has inflicted

," making it possible to "condemn and recognize slavery in the clearest terms as a crime against humanity," a terminology that had not been used before by the government to refer to slavery.

"For centuries, the Dutch State and its representatives have allowed, encouraged, maintained and benefited from slavery. People have been commodified, exploited and abused in the name of the Dutch State (...) Today, in the name of the Government Dutch, I apologize for the actions of the Dutch state in the past," he said.

Slavery was "a criminal system that has caused untold suffering to untold numbers of people around the world, and continues to affect people's lives here and now," said Rutte, who considered the National Archives the place to this

.

"Dehumanized and treated like cattle"

He admitted that, for a long time, he believed that "it is not possible to take responsibility in a meaningful way" for something that happened in the past and that he did not witness in person, but acknowledged that "I was wrong" because "centuries of oppression and exploitation" still affect societies today.

"In racist stereotypes, in discriminatory patterns of exclusion, in social inequality," he said.

While it is true that "no one alive today is personally guilty of slavery", the Dutch state "in all its historical manifestations, is responsible for the great suffering inflicted" on enslaved people.

Other representatives of the Dutch Government are this Monday in Suriname and six islands in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saint Eustatius, Saba and Sint Maarten.

There they will hold meetings with local representatives about these apologies, which Rutte himself has described as a "significant moment".

The legal slave trade ended in 1814

, but it survived in the Dutch colonies until 1873. "More than 600,000 enslaved African women, men and children were shipped to the American continent in appalling conditions by Dutch slave traders (...). They were separated of their families, dehumanized, transported and treated like cattle," denounced Rutte.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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