Iran Press/ Europe: The king was speaking at a ceremony marking the 160th anniversary of the legal abolition of slavery in the Netherlands, including its former colonies in the Caribbean.
The apology comes amid a wider reconsideration of the Netherlands’ colonial past, including involvement in both the Atlantic slave trade and slavery in its former Asian colonies.
Willem-Alexander apologized in Indonesia in 2020 for “excessive violence” during Dutch colonial rule.
In December, Prime Minister Mark Rutte acknowledged the Dutch state bears responsibility for the Atlantic slave trade and profited from it and apologized, but he has said the government will not pay reparations, as an advisory panel recommended in 2021.
A government-commissioned study published last month found that the House of Orange profited by around $600 million in modern terms from Dutch colonies in 1675-1770, much of it given as a gift from the Dutch East India Company’s spice trade profits.
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