Belgium urged to address Congo demons

UN experts say that racial discrimination ‘is endemic’ in Belgium's institutions and that the nation needs to apologise for crimes committed during its colonisation of the Congo. A report on the News24 site notes that the UN Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent has issued an interim report on Belgium, noting that ‘the root causes of present day human rights violations lie in the lack of recognition of the true scope of violence and injustice of colonisation’. The Daily Telegraph reports that the group also took aim at the Africa Museum for not doing enough to exorcise the demons of its exploitation of the Congo. Filled with more than 180 000 looted items and 500 stuffed animals, the museum celebrated the Belgians, who turned the Congo into a slave state ruled by Leopold II for more than a century. The king’s brutal regime, which inspired Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, killed millions and ruthlessly plundered the region of rubber. The panel noted the many remaining statues of Leopold and monuments to the colonial army that dot the streets and parks of Brussels. ‘We urge the government to apologise for the atrocities committed during the colonisation,’ said group president Michal Balcherzak. Charles Michel, Belgium’s Prime Minister, said he thought the findings, to be published in full in September, were ‘very strange’. ‘We will have the opportunity to make our formal remarks. We certainly will,’ he said and insisted Belgium stood against all forms of discrimination.

Full report in The Daily Telegraph

Full Fin24 report