A new address for the EC’s Directorate General for Trade?
The Minister of External Affairs, Prof. G. L. Peiris received a
letter recently. It came from the office of the European Commission. It
was not exactly a show-cause letter, but it was essentially a snub, a
threat and more of a ‘chapter-closing’ kind of missive. It related to
the GSP Plus trade concessions or their suspension, rather. The letter
was posted from Brussels, Belgium.
Yesterday I wrote about the Congo and its first Prime Minister,
Patrice Lumumba. I did not realize that even as I was writing, King
Albert II of Belgium and the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon were
standing side by side in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, ‘celebrating’
the Independence of that unhappy country, where my friend Nicky
Karunarathna reminds me, the Belgians amputated Congolese who refused to
work in the rubber plantations.
It is said that of all the Europeans who scrambled for control of
Africa at the end of the 19th Century none left a legacy as terrible and
violent as the Belgian monarchs. King Leopold II even justified the
brutality and butchery as an effort to ‘protect natives from Arab
slavers and to open the heart of Africa to Christian missionaries’.
Congo was turned into a massive labour camp. Close to 10 million people
were killed. The killers had to chop off the hands of victims, to ‘show
that the bullets used to kill were not wasted on animals’.
External Affairs Minister Prof. G L Peiris |
‘Legalized robbery enforced by violence’ was the watchword of the
Belgians and June 30, 1960, was the one brief moment of hope for Congo
and the Congolese. The moment was over on January 17, 1961. Lumumba was
murdered. Today, 50 years later, King Albert II may or may not want to
be reminded of the fact that his brother, delivering a ‘farewell’ speech
in 1960 saluted the ‘genius’ of Belgian colonialism. Indeed, as moves
are under way to finally bring to a close the investigation into the
assassination of Lumumba, Belgium doesn’t want to discuss the subject.
Naturally, one may add, for that’s what Belgium did for 50 years:
pretend it never happened, feigned innocence in a dastardly crime
against humanity. And we in Sri Lanka get letters from Brussels and are
lectured to by the European Commission, an arm of the club of powerful
and bullying nations in which Belgium is a member state. We are asked
about the truth. We are asked about human rights. We are asked to
improve mechanisms to ensure protection of human rights. The truth is
that Belgium doesn’t like the word or the meaning and has symbolized a
fascination with its polar opposite, falsehood and all related terms.
Apparently it has been found that Belgium was ‘morally responsible
but not legally responsible’ for the murder of Lumumba. What nice things
words are, I thought to myself, reading that line. That’s what an
investigation commissioned by the Belgian Parliament had concluded.
Well, no one need be surprised by the turn of phrase, for that’s what
Colonialism was all about (i.e. when it was not turning bayonet inside
the stomachs of ‘natives’ into which enlightenment was being thrust in
the name of all kinds of charity, Christian included).
Here’s the funny part. Louis Michel, Belgium’s liberated ex-foreign
minister and until last year the EU’s ‘Development Commissioner’ has
declared (just last week) that Leopold II was a ‘true visionary for his
time, a hero who brought civilization to the Congo’. ‘Civilization’
meant that men were worked to death and the women raped and starved. The
women, in fact, had been held hostage to ensure that the Congolese men
did not run off instead of subjecting themselves to brutal forms of
forced labour, all of which Leopold II pioneered.
And we still get letters from Brussels, Belgium. All about human
rights. About legislation that champion human rights and good
governance. About being nice boys and girls. Just so we can get a US$
150 million by way of trade concessions. This is blood money and if we
really need it to stay afloat in these trying times there is only one
thing we can do: learn to swim. Some of us may drown, but those who
survive would have the one thing that we need to preserve for our
children at all costs. Dignity.
I was wondering if I would not want to puke if the letter had not
been posted in Brussels. The astounding fact is that the retching might
be even more violent given histories and current realities, the crimes
of omission and commission, in various parts of the world in various
violent forms.
No, I doubt the EC can find a new address for its Directorate General
for Trade. Or for any arm of the EU. Might as well close shop, if they
have any shame. They don’t and therefore shop will remain open. The ball
then is on our court. Finally. Thankfully.
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