BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 31. Belgian King Leopold I ruled the Congo as his personal property, establishing a forced labor, mutilation, and terror-based regime, Luis Flipp, a PhD student and researcher at the University of Brasilia, said during an international conference titled "Belgian colonialism: acknowledgement and responsibility" organized by the Baku Initiative Group, dedicated to Belgium's colonial past and its current serious consequences, Trend reports.
Flipp observed that Congolese laborers were compelled to engage in the extraction of rubber and ivory, executing objectives that were fundamentally unattainable in practice.
"Individuals unable to meet these exigencies encountered severe punitive measures, including the severance of extremities, capital punishment, systemic oppression of their spiritual practices, and various manifestations of coercive violence," he elucidated.
The researcher also said that the soldiers of the First Republic, that is, the public forces of that time, were even forced to present severed hands to prove the number of bullets used.
"This was a 'control mechanism' that made violence part of the administrative system. I would like to emphasize that this was not random violence but a purposeful measure of control. Violence had become a political language, a tool that reinforced economic exploitation and racial hierarchy," he added.
To note, the Belgian colonial enterprise in Africa spanned from 1885 to 1960, incorporating the Congo Free State (1885–1908) and the Belgian Congo (1908–1960), aggregating to a duration of 75 years, alongside the administrative oversight of Ruanda-Urundi from 1922 to 1962.
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