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Ar GUYANA | IDAPADA-G's Chair Vincent Alexander Welcomes Netherland's Public Apology for Slavery
GUYANA | IDAPADA-G's Chair Vincent Alexander Welcomes Netherland's Public Apology for Slavery
GEORGETOWN, December 19, 2022 - Guyana’s Coordinating Mechanism for the United Nations declared International Decade for People of African Descent, the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDAPADA-G), has written an open letter to Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte, welcoming his public apology for his country’s involvement in the enslavement of Africans, the slave trade and all of the attendant and enduring ills.
Writing on behalf of IDAPADA-G, Chairman Vincent Alexander said his organization “consider this apology a significant step in the acceptance of guilt and the demonstration of penitence for the involvement of the Dutch in the worst crime ever committed against humanity.”
“We look forward to subsequent initiatives on your Government’s part in response to the just and global call for reparations as the ultimate act of recompense,” he said.
The following is the full text of the open letter:
December 19,2022
Open Letter to His Excellency Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands
Your Excellency,
Please accept felicitations from the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDAPADA-G), Guyana’s Coordinating Mechanism for the UN declared International Decade for People of African Descent, on the occasion of the Netherlands’ public apology for its involvement in the enslavement of Africans, the slave trade and all of the attendant and enduring ills.
We consider this apology a significant step in the acceptance of guilt and the demonstration of penitence for the involvement of the Dutch in the worse crime ever committed against humanity.
We look forward to subsequent initiatives on your Government’s part in response to the just and global call for reparations as the ultimate act of recompense.
Your Government’s commitment in that regard is manifest in some actions taken in the post-colonial era. We presently enjoy beneficial relations in the archival sphere. Those relations can go a far way in the pursuit of recognition for the peoples of African descent, recognition being one of the goals of the UN declared decade to which your government subscribed.
Much of Guyana’s legal and land conveyancing systems are legacies of the long period of Dutch colonial administration that ended in 1803. Even as we acknowledge these aspects of the legacy woven into the fabric of our society and enduring today, we, as African Guyanese and descendants of the victims of this unspeakable crime, look forward to the formal apology.
May this initiative enhance our countries’ current relations based on the universal principle of mutual respect and the embrace of the principles which we all subscribe to as members of the United Nations.
Sincerely,
Vincent Alexander
Chair
IDPADA-G