Vlaams Belang “restores” Congo monument in Cinquantenaire: “Men sw … (Brussels)

Brussels –

Vlaams Belang senator Bob De Brabandere and Dries Van Langenhove, member of the parliamentary group of Vlaams Belang, took a symbolic action against what they call “the current iconoclasm and apology cult” on Thursday morning. They placed the words ‘Arabic’ and ‘arabe’ back at the Congo monument in the Cinquantenaire Park in Brussels.

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After all, the party thinks it is very double that today, in the name of the people, one should apologize for what it was done by others in the distant past, “while at the same time keeping silent about the crimes that are still going on today.” The deletion of the words ‘Arab’ or ‘arabe’ from the Congo monument in the Cinquantenaire is, in that respect, ‘symptomatic of this hypocrisy’.

The Congo monument in the Cinquantenaire originally contained the words “Belgian military heroism destroys slavery-like Arab / De Belgische militaire heldenmoed verdelgt den Arabische slavendrijver“. According to Vlaams Belang, it is mainly the word ‘arabe / Arab’ that turned out to be an eyesore. It was chiselled away for the first time in the 1980s, after which it reappeared. However, since 2015, the word has disappeared completely, as it has been labeled “offensive” to the entire Arab community.

“Hypocritical,” according to Vlaams Belang, since the Arab slave traders did play a historical role of importance up to that point in the region. The party therefore placed the words back symbolically. “After all, if apologies for one type of crime have to come, why do we remove the other? “

For De Brabandere, the “apology cult” must stop: “But that is not to say that the atrocities of the past must be denied. This applies to Leopold II, but also to other culprits. And certainly for crimes that continue to this day in certain areas such as slavery. ”

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