Name: Leopold not to blame for Congo abuse, Belgian king's brother says
Brand: reuters.com
SKU: reuters-com-1816
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

Leopold not to blame for Congo abuse, Belgian king's brother says

preview

By , BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The brother of Belgium’s king joined a swelling debate about its past on Friday by saying that King Leopold II, under whose rule millions of Congolese were killed or maimed, could not have “made people suffer” because he never visited his colony.Slideshow Statues of Leopold, who ruled over what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo for 23 years until 1908, have been defaced by activists since anti-racism protests against the police killing of black American George Floyd turned global.Prince Laurent, brother of King Philippe, told the Sudpresse agency that abuses had occurred in the Congo Free State, Leopold’s personal fiefdom and source of wealth, but that Leopold was not to blame.“He never himself went to Congo,” he said. So I do not see how he could have made people there suffer.”But Belgium has begun to debate what happened.Adam Hochschild, author of the best-selling “King Leopold’s Ghost”, concluded that about half the population of the Congo Free State perished under the king. Villages that missed rubber collection quotas were made to provide severed hands instead.Joachim Coens, chairman of the Flemish Christian Democrats, told the broadcaster VRT it was time for Belgium, and preferably the king himself, to address the issue.“There must be an acknowledgement that this was a problem in certain aspects,” he said on Thursday evening.The national newspaper Le Soir led its Friday edition with the headline “Leopold II, the king unnerving the palace”.The royal household said it never commented on statements by political leaders.A chronology of Leopold II on its website does contain a reference to “abuses”, adding: “Following the excesses committed by the Europeans in Africa, Leopold’s reputation and his overseas venture were questioned.”A bust of Leopold in Brussels became the latest to be damaged, removed from its plinth by activists overnight.“This is not how we proceed in a democracy. This is not how we put history back on the right track,” Auderghem Mayor Didier Gosuin told RTBF.Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine and Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Giles Elgood and Kevin LiffeyOur Standards:

By , BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The brother of Belgium’s king joined a swelling debate about its past on Friday by saying that King Leopold II, under whose rule millions of Congolese were killed or maimed, could not have “made people suffer” because he never visited his colony.Slideshow Statues of Leopold, who ruled over what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo for 23 years until 1908, have been defaced by activists since anti-racism protests against the police killing of black American George Floyd turned global.Prince Laurent, brother of King Philippe, told the Sudpresse agency that abuses...

public

Marine Strauss

Philip Blenkinsop

Top and breaking news, pictures and videos from Reuters. For more breaking business news, follow @ReutersBiz.

reuters.com

Credible

Speculation

Anecdotal Evidence

Generalization

Stacking the Deck

Appeal to Authority

Straw Man

Slippery Slope

Emotional Appeal

Red Herring

False Dilemma

Illogical

Moral Equivalency

Ad Hominem

Correlation w/o Causation

Semantics

Begging the Question

Faulty Analogy

Non Sequitur

Bandwagon

Dogmatism

Failing Occam's Razor

Biased

Pure Opinion

Hit Piece

Racial Bias

National Bias

Religious Bias

Financial Incentive

Political Agenda

Gender Bias

Misused Image/Video

Study Misinterpreted

Mistake

Misused Term

Science Misrepresented

Factual Error

Satire

Surface Level

Lack of Reliable Sources

Sensational

Not Credible

Investigative

Balanced

Well Sourced

Great Context

sports

entertainment

U.S.

international

business

technology

science

culture

politics

media

health

Leopold not to blame for Congo abuse, Belgian king's brother says

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS