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Belgium's King Philippe's visit
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At the National Museum, at the Veterans' Memorial or at the People's Palace, the visit of the King of the Belgians to Kinshasa, Wednesday June 8, promises to be dense in evocation of the colonial past and the delicate work of reconciliation between Belgium and the Democratic Republic. of the Congo (DRC).
At the National Museum, at the Veterans' Memorial or at the People's Palace, the visit of the King of the Belgians to Kinshasa, Wednesday June 8, promises to be dense in evocation of the colonial past and the delicate work of reconciliation between Belgium and the Democratic Republic. of the Congo (DRC).
King Philippe, accompanied by his wife, Queen Mathilde, and members of the Belgian government, including its leader Alexander De Croo, arrived Tuesday afternoon in Kinshasa, for an official visit scheduled for six days, at the invitation of the DRC President Felix Tshisekedi.
The second day of the royal trip will begin with a wreath laying at the veterans' memorial, an opportunity for the sovereign to award a decoration to the last Congolese veteran of the "Belgian Public Force" who participated in the Second World War.
Corporal Albert Kunyuku, who has just celebrated his 100th birthday, was drafted in 1940 and was part of the military medical support contingent sent to Burma in 1945.
The King will then go to the National Museum of the DRC (MNRDC), a recent establishment financed by South Korean funds, inaugurated in November 2019. Dedicated to the cultural history of the country, it houses masks, utensils, musical instruments, etc
This visit should make it possible to address the question of the return of works of art to the former colony, for which the Belgian government has defined a roadmap in 2021.
After a welcome ceremony at the Palais de la nation, residence official of the President of the DRC, the Congolese Head of State and the King of the Belgians will meet on the esplanade of the People's Palace, seat of Parliament.
King Philippe is to deliver the first speech of his trip there.
Two years ago, on June 30, 2020, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the independence of the former Belgian Congo, King Philippe had expressed in a letter to Mr. Tshisekedi his "deepest regrets" for the "wounds" of colonization, a historic first.
He had then regretted the "acts of violence and cruelty" committed at the time when his ancestor Leopold II had made the Congo his personal property (1885-1908), before the Belgian State's presence in the country for half a century.
This visit, twice postponed because of Covid-19 and then the outbreak of war in Ukraine, is the first since that of his father Albert II in 2010 and has a strong symbolic significance.
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A colonial regime marked by discrimination and racism": in Kinshasa, the King reiterates his "sincere regrets"
The King's long-awaited speech in Kinshasa confirms the Palace's desire to explicitly condemn an era.
Without however passing the course of the excuses, reserved for the political power.
The former colonial powers often find it difficult to come to terms with their history, but two years ago, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Congo's independence, King Philippe took the initiative to write a historic missive.
For the first time, the Palace recognized, through the voice of the King, "the acts of violence and cruelty" committed under the Leopoldian Congo, as well as the "suffering and humiliation" experienced during the colonization of the country by Belgium.
Two years later, on the occasion of the first visit of the royal couple to Congo, King Philippe reiterated, during his address to President Félix Tshisekedi on the Esplanade of the Palais du Peuple in Kinshasa, his "sincere regrets" for the “wounds of the past”:
“The colonial regime as such was based on exploitation and domination. This regime was that of an unequal relationship, in itself unjustifiable, marked by paternalism, discrimination and racism. It gave rise to abuses and humiliations,” the King said.
Clear condemnation of the colonial regime
A confirmation, therefore, of the strong words put down two years ago.
“Sincere regrets” which will not pass the course of “apologies”: a term which will be reserved for the political field to which it will be up to pronounce it.
The question of using it will undoubtedly arise when the conclusions of the decolonization commission, which are still pending, are made public.
But one more step was taken by the King towards an increasingly explicit condemnation of a precisely cited era, that of the colonial regime. With the desire to look the mistakes and horrors of the past in the eye in order to relaunch cooperation between Belgium and the Congo, which has been undermined in recent years:
"Over the decades, cooperation between our two countries has experienced ups and downs. down. In recent years, it had even lost its dynamism.
It was time to bring it back to life.
Today, the foundations of a new bilateral partnership are laid,” the King said. "The Congo thus remains our most important partner in Africa."
Relaunch the engine of cooperation
In a second step, it is also the relaunch of the engine of "equal to equal" collaboration, dialogue and military cooperation that animated the King's speech in Kinshasa.
Evoking between the lines the tensions that are shaking eastern Congo - "these difficult times for your country" - King Philippe welcomed President Tshisekedi's efforts to renew dialogue with his neighbors and assured Belgian support:
"Our commitment -à-vis the DRC remains the same: that of firm support for the stabilization and democratization of the country as well as respect for human rights".
www.mediacongo.net
When he took power in January 2019, Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, in his policy of "active diplomacy", undertook to reconnect with the various partners of the DRC who were no longer in the odor of sanctity with the Kabila regime.
Reconnecting with the former metropolis was, without a doubt, one of the diplomatic priorities of the new President Tshisekedi who made his first state visit there outside the African continent. It was the first sign of a new emerging union between the DRC and Belgium.
This union, according to the VPM for Foreign Affairs, Christophe Lutundula, is reaching its peak with the visit of King Philippe.
He argued that "the visit of the King (of the Belgians) is part of the symbolism of the revival" of diplomatic relations between the DRC and Belgium under the Tshisekedi era.
In the name of this symbolism of the revival, King Philippe, after more than one postponement, has never wavered in his determination to visit the former Belgian Congo for the first time since his ascent to the throne on July 23. 2021.
Win-win agreements
A rare fact that cannot fail to raise many questions, including the most pending: are the DRC and Belgium living the idyll of their dream?
Affirmative, to scrutinize the intervention of Lutundula the day before the arrival of King Philippe, on the sidelines of the traditional press briefing organized by the Minister of Communication and the Media.
Kinshasa and Brussels have concluded, according to Lutundula, many "win-win" bilateral cooperation agreements in sectors such as education, the army, health...
The VPM for Foreign Affairs wanted to be very delighted by these agreements, specifying that winning it is not necessarily assessed from a material and/or financial point of view.
For him, it is the combination of the efforts of each other so that each party benefits from the cooperation according to its needs and interests.
In addition, the head of Congolese diplomacy confessed that "Belgium is an important partner and it is the capital of Europe.
Anyone who wants to collaborate with the European Union must go through Belgium literally and figuratively".
Words that flirt with a passionate or inflated speech , putting, we can not even more, bare the perfect love that the two lovebirds devote to each other.
Christophe Lutundula, VPM for Foreign Affairs
www.mediacongo.net