Dutch King Willem-Alexander apologized on Saturday for his country’s historic role in the slave trade, as he commemorated the 160th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the Netherlands and its former colonies.
“Today I stand before you. Today, as your King and as a member of the government, I make this apology myself. And I feel the weight of the words in my heart and my soul,” Willem-Alexander said.
“But for me, there is another personal dimension,” he added. “Slavery and the slave trade are recognized as a crime against humanity. And the Stadholders and Kings of the House of Orange-Nassau did nothing to stop it.”
The king’s remarks on Saturday come in the wake of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s own apology last December.
“It is true that nobody alive today bears any personal guilt for slavery…(however) the Dutch state bears responsibility for the immense suffering that has been done to those that were enslaved and their descendants,” Rutte said at the time, according to Reuters.
Rutte’s December apology was met with some resistance by groups who said that such an address should be given by the king on Saturday’s anniversary of the abolition of slavery, Reuters reported.
Slavery was legally abolished in the Netherlands and its former colonies — including Suriname in South America and the Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Sint Eustatius and Sint Maarten — in 1863.
“Today, on this day of remembrance, I ask forgiveness for the clear failure to act in the face of this crime against humanity,” King Willem-Alexander said on Saturday.
“The horrific legacy of slavery remains with us today,” he also said. “Its effects can still be felt in racism in our society.”