Belgium found guilty of crimes against humanity in colonial Congo

The Belgian state has been found guilty of crimes against humanity for the forced removal of five mixed-race children from their mothers in colonial Congo, in a landmark decision.

- Jennifer Rankin

In a long-awaited ruling issued yesterday, Belgium's court of appeal said that five women, born in the Belgian Congo and now in their 70s, had been victims of "systematic kidnapping" by the state when they were removed from their mothers as small children and sent to Catholic institutions because of their mixed-race origins.

"This is a victory and a historic judgment," Michèle Hirsch, one of the lawyers for the women, told local media. "It is the first time in Belgium and probably in Europe that a court has condemned the Belgian colonial state for crimes against humanity."

Monique Bitu Bingi, who was removed from her mother aged three, told the Guardian that justice had been done. "I am relieved," she said. "The judges have recognised that this was a crime against humanity."

She received news of the judgment alongside the four other women who brought the case in their lawyer's office. "We jumped for joy," she said.