PARAMARIBO – Chairman of the National Reparations Commission (NRC), Armand Zunder, has described as a “slap in the face to descendants of enslaved people in Suriname” the decision of the Netherlands to abstain from a United Nations resolution designating transatlantic slavery as the gravest crime against humanity.
Last week, the 80th UN General Assembly approved the resolution designating the ”Trafficking of Enslaved Africans as the Gravest Crime Against Humanity”.
The resolution was adopted with a majority vote of 123 in favour, three against and 52 abstentions. All Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states voted in favour of the Resolution.
The United States, Israel, and Argentina voted against, while the Netherlands was among the 52 countries that abstained from supporting the resolution, which was submitted by Ghana.
Zunder said that the Netherlands has actually taken steps towards recognition and reconciliation in recent years.
In 2022, then-prime minister Mark Rutte offered an apology, followed by King Willem-Alexander on July 1, 2023, who also asked for forgiveness for the history of slavery. During his state visit to Suriname in December, the Monarch reiterated this request in conversations with, among others, the granmans of the Maroon tribes and other leaders of the Afro-Surinamese community.
“Here in Suriname, a group consisting of granmans and Para plantations, I believe, and perhaps a few other people, has even granted the King forgiveness for what the Dutch government, or at least what former Dutch administrators, have done. So this is a slap in the face, you could say, for this group, because the Dutch government has now actually taken a different stance on this world front,” said Zunder.
According to him, given the earlier apologies, The Hague should have supported the resolution:
“But on the contrary, they did not support the resolution; they abstained from voting,” Zunder said, noting that now that this has occurred, it would be “wise” for Suriname’s Minister of Foreign Affairs or the President to ask their Dutch counterparts for “further explanation” in bilateral consultations.
Zunder said ahead of the UN resolution debate, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had sought advice from the NRC which the committee said fits within a longer international trajectory. (CMC)
