5 Women Win Reparations From Belgium for Crimes Under Colonial Rule

A court in Brussels ruled on Monday that five mixed-race women, now in their 70s and 80s, were owed reparations from Belgium for crimes the state had committed against them under colonial rule in Belgian Congo.

The women, the children of African mothers and European fathers, were taken from their parents by the Belgian authorities at ages as young as 2 and sent to religious schools hundreds of miles away that were run by the Catholic Church. They grew up in poverty and suffered from malnutrition and physical abuse, and their identities were hidden from them. The policy started in the late 19th century and continued until after Congo’s independence in 1960.

The court said that Belgium had committed an inhumane act and an act of persecution that amounted to a crime against humanity. The five women won 50,000 euros, or about $52,000, each.

“There is no doubt for the court that the appellants have experienced great suffering since, and as a result of, their kidnapping before the age of 7 by the state,” the Brussels Court of Appeal said in its ruling.

From 1908 to 1960, the Belgian state ruled what today includes the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. Europeans and Africans were not allowed to have sexual relations, and the authorities took thousands of children from their families and sent them to Catholic institutions in Congo. A small number were sent to Belgium.

Monique Bitu Bingi, one of the appellants, said in an interview on Monday that the decision was a victory, not just for her and the others taken from their parents, but also for their Congolese mothers. “I feel so relieved,” said Ms. Bitu Bingi, 75. “The Belgian government took my youth away, and it was something I had to fight for, to explain to the world what happened.”