Home » World » King Philippe expresses “his regrets” to the Congolese for the Belgian colonial past – Agence Afrique

King Philippe expresses “his regrets” to the Congolese for the Belgian colonial past – Agence Afrique

King Philippe of Belgium presented on Tuesday “his deepest regrets for the injuries” inflicted during the colonial period in the former Belgian Congo, a historic first in relations between the two countries.

The Belgian sovereign wrote a letter to the president of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the independence of his country on June 30, 1960.

In this letter communicated to the press, King Philippe evokes – without naming his ancestor – the era of Leopold II, which has been considered the most brutal by historians, when the deceased king managed the Congo and its riches as his private property from Brussels.

“At the time of the independent state of the Congo (from 1885 to 1908 when Léopold II ceded the territory to the Belgian state, note) acts of violence and cruelty were committed, which still weigh on our collective memory” , writes Philippe.

“The colonial period that followed (until 1960) also caused suffering and humiliation. I would like to express my deepest regrets for these wounds of the past, the pain of which is now rekindled by the discrimination still too present in our societies, “he stressed.

During a ceremony in Brussels, Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès wanted a debate “without taboos, with sincerity and severity” on this “shared history” between Belgians and Congolese. She recalled that a parliamentary committee was to tackle it soon, bringing together Belgian and African experts, a first in Belgium.

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