THE HAGUE, Netherlands: The Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Monday officially apologized for 250 years of his country’s involvement in slavery, calling it a “crime against humanity.”
The apology comes almost 150 years after the end of slavery in the northwestern European nation’s overseas colonies, which included Suriname in South America, Indonesia in the east and Caribbean islands such as Curacao and Aruba.
In the first of the former Dutch colonies to react, Aruba’s Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes accepted the apology, but others deplored a lack of concrete action or dialogue.
“Today, on behalf of the Dutch government, I apologize for the past actions of the Dutch state,” Rutte said in a speech, repeating the apology in English, Papiamento and Sranan Tongo, languages spoken on the Caribbean islands and in Suriname.
“The Dutch State of the…
