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About: http://data.cimple.eu/news-article/d3be40e7f180ff8a3c60a4f87f1f10392750a87cec6668292ba3d078 Goto Sponge NotDistinct Permalink

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rdf:type	schema:NewsArticle
schema:articleBody	Five women born in the former Belgian Congo in the 1940s and forcibly taken from their mothers are suing the Belgian state for crimes against humanity, according to legal documents seen Thursday by AFP. The women, all children of black Congolese mothers and white fathers, were put into a Catholic mission by the Belgian colonial administration, like thousands of other mixed-race children. The case comes as Belgium grapples with its brutal past in Congo, with protests inspired by the US "Black Lives Matter" movement targeting statues of Leopold II, the king who oversaw bloody colonial exploitation in Africa. "This was child abduction, organised by the Belgian state and carried out with the help of the Church," the women, now aged between 70 and 74, say in their complaint. "Some of them were born to fathers declared 'unknown' on their documents, when he was not," the complaint says, pointing out that the principle was to "remove the mixed-race child from any influence from their mother," against a backdrop of strict separation of white and black people. The complaint was filed this week, just days before the 60th anniversary of Congo's independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960. A spokeswoman for the Brussels court said no date has been set for a hearing. The Belgian state is also accused of having "abandoned" the children at independence, leaving them vulnerable to militia fighters. The complaint refers to sexual abuse and rape. "We were the children of sin, we were unhappy," one of the five women, Lea Tavares Mujinga, told Belgian broadcaster RTBF. Lawyers for the women say the "crime against humanity" charge is justified by the fact they were the victims of an institutionalised state system. They are demanding provisional damages of 50,000 euros each as well as the appointment of an expert to assess the psychological damage they suffered. In April 2019, Belgium's then-prime minister Charles Michel apologised on behalf of the state for the "injustices and suffering" endured by mixed-race children forcibly removed from their communities. mad/pdw/dc/txw
schema:headline	Mixed-race women sue Belgium over colonial treatment
schema:mentions	Congo Free State Belgian Congo Lea Salonga Multiracial Child abduction John Tavares Militia Agence France-Presse Child sexual abuse Brussels Belgium Black people Africa Rape Court Sin RTBF Leopold II of Belgium Personal defense weapon Charles Michel
schema:author	http://data.cimple.eu/organization/1f0054d541e000623a2c1e561a247c073ef6328e8be9ffafda7b3fcd
schema:datePublished	2020-06-25 (xsd:date)
http://data.cimple...sPoliticalLeaning	other political leaning
http://data.cimple...logy#hasSentiment	negative sentiment
http://data.cimple...readability_score	80 (xsd:integer)

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