THE HAGUE - Prime Minister of Aruba Evelyn Wever-Croes supports the package of demands that Caribbean and Surinamese organizations have submitted to the Dutch cabinet in the context of the discussion about the Netherlands apologizing for its slavery past.
There must be a recovery fund for descendants of the victims of slavery and the debt that the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom and Suriname have to the Netherlands must be canceled. Furthermore, the word negro must be made a criminal offense and must disappear from the public domain. Various interest groups write this in a letter to the cabinet. Only by complying with these and other demands will the parties agree to the government's public apology on 19 December.
Another demand is that King Willem-Alexander will give a speech in Amsterdam's Oosterpark during the commemoration on 1 July. Nieuwsuur reports that the Prime Minister of Aruba and organizations including Zwart Manifest, Kick Out Zwarte Piet, The Black Archives, NiNsee and Vereniging Antilliaans Netwerk support the demands. “From our positions, we only agree with December 19 and we can only defend this publicly if the cabinet commits to the preconditions we provide,” they write.
The government's official response quickly followed: “It is good that some of our interlocutors have summarized their ideas in the letter. Because they have listed the points of different organizations. They know that we will not take over everything, we also discussed that in the Catshuis (Dutch Prime Minister’s residence). But we will continue the discussion with them and other parties involved in the coming period.” Surinamese organizations that were not at the Catshuis consultation have announced that they will enforce a postponement of the apology through the courts.