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ANNOUNCEMENTS••Edited
The apology announced by the government for the past of Dutch slavery will be delivered on Monday 19 December. Sources from The Hague say so. To this end, seven cabinet members will travel to Suriname and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom. There they will give speeches in which they will express regret on behalf of the state of the Netherlands. Prime Minister Rutte is doing the same in the Netherlands.
Earlier this month it was already known that the cabinet would soon be excusing its past slavery. The majority of the House of Representatives also urged it after a trip by a parliamentary delegation to Suriname, Curaçao and Bonaire.
Prime Minister Rutte himself contributed September a visit to Suriname. There he said that 2023 should be about acknowledging the suffering of slavery. Next year it will be 150 years since slavery was abolished in the Dutch colonies. On the eve of that commemorative year, the Cabinet then issues the long-awaited apology.
Wind weather in Paramaribo
It happens on the same day in the Netherlands and in the former colonies that had to deal with slavery. Minister Weerwind (Legal Protection) will travel to the Surinamese capital Paramaribo, the sources said.
Secretary of State Van der Burg (Asylum) visits Aruba, Minister Van Gennip (Social Affairs) in Bonaire, Secretary of State Van Huffelen (Kingdom Relations) in Curaçao, Secretary of State Van Rij (Finance) in St. Eustatius, Secretary of State Van Ooijen (Welfare) in Saba and Minister Kuipers (Public Health) in Sint Maarten.
The fact that an apology is expressed does not mean that direct financial compensation will be made for the relatives of the enslaved people. However, the cabinet has announced that €200 million will go to a fund from which awareness-raising projects will have to be paid for. In addition, 27 million euros will be made available for a museum on slavery.
Several Dutch cities that have played a role in slavery have already apologized. Chairman Klaas Knot of De Nederlandsche Bank did the same in the month of July this year, during the annual Keti Koti commemoration of the abolition of slavery.
The cabinet then refused. According to insiders, the ministers did not think the time was right at the time, because there was a lot of social unrest from nitrogen and the war in Ukraine.
