Paris, July 12th, 2021
The State of the African Diaspora is proud to announce this historical piece of news : last week, the Government of Belgium officially presented its roadmap for restitution. During a press conference, Thomas Dermine, Secretary of State in charge of Sciences declared :
“Time has come to give back to DRC the artifacts stolen by Belgium, they belong to the Congolese people “.
Most of these artifacts were stolen in a context of massacres and crimes against humanity during King Leopold’s reign -between 6 and 12 millions Africans died in Congo during that time, according to the experts.
The campaign for restitution in Belgium was launched in October 2018 by Dr Louis-Georges Tin, Prime Minister of SOAD, and Mireille Robert, leader of the NGO Bamko-CRAN, and now MP for the State of the African Diaspora. https://parismatch.be/actualites/societe/189003/restitution-des-biens-africains-spolies-lamorce-dun-dialogue-en-belgique
A conference was then organised in the Parliament in Brussels, and Dr Tin was the keynote speaker during that event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhYt9cgz0kg. The result of this initiative is the resolution for restitution that was voted in the Parliament in 2019. https://www.parlementfrancophone.brussels/documents/proposition-030571-du-2019-02-06-a-14-11-05. After this resolution, the Government had to follow the Parliament, and this is what happened last week.
The Prime Minister of the State of the African Diaspora made the following statement :
“After our victory in France, this new achievement is also an historical event. I am glad that Mireille Robert and myself could work together on this restitution, that was long overdue. But, we need to be vigilant and monitor the whole process. We have received a mandate from the Ministry of Culture of DRC to work on this restitution, and we will ensure that this matter is dealt with properly. However, we need to continue our fight for restitution and reparation, that is for Justice. “
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