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Netherlands to return treasures to Indonesia and Sri Lanka
The Netherlands is set to hand back hundreds of precious artefacts taken from Indonesia and Sri Lanka during its colonial period.
Objects to be returned include a gem-encrusted bronze cannon and a looted cache of jewels from the “Lombok treasure”. A report had urged the government to return items if countries request them. The agreed restitution comes as the Netherlands increasingly confronts its colonial past.
Other countries have also began returning precious looted artifacts in recent years . Notable examples include British and German museums signing over some of the so-called Benin Bronzes stolen from Nigeria during a large-scale 1897 British Military expedition.
“This is the first time that we are returning objects that should never have been in the Netherlands,” Culture Minister Gunay Uslu said. “But we are not just returning objects. We are actually starting a period in which we are more intensively cooperating with Indonesia and Sri Lanka.”
Among the collections to be handed back to Indonesia is the so called “Lombok treasure” – a trove of jewels, precious stones, gold and silver which was looted by the Dutch colonial army from a royal palace on Indonesia’s Lombok island in 1894.
Sri Lanka will take back a lavishly decorated 18th Century bronze cannon, currently on display at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, thought to have been a gift from a Sri Lankan aristocrat to the King of Kandy in the 1740s. The cannon is believed to have fallen into Dutch hands in 1765, when Dutch troops attacked and conquered the Sri Lankan kingdom of Kandy.
Culture Minister Uslu said the government was acting on recommendations laid out in a 2020 report by a Dutch committee investigating art taken during the colonial era. The committee urged the government to be “willing to return unconditionally” any cultural objects looted in former Dutch colonies if requested by the source country. “The Netherlands must assume responsibility for its colonial past by making the recognition and redress of this injustice a key principle of the policy on colonial collections,” the report said.
The country has been wrestling with its legacy more openly in recent years.
On Saturday, King Willem-Alexander formally apologised for the Netherlands’ role in the slave trade, saying he felt ‘personally and intensely’ affected.
The country became a major colonial power after the 17th Century, holding territories across the globe, and Dutch slave traders trafficked more than 600,000 people.
(BBC)
The Chartered Computer Institute of Sri Lanka was established in 1976 as the premier and sole body representing professionals in the Information and Communication Technology sector in Sri Lanka. It has recognized the importance of establishing the Sri Lanka Chartered Computer Association as the main professional organization to act on behalf of the interests of professionals representing the computer sector in Sri Lanka, which should be treated equally with other professional organizations that have obtained chartered status and other formal recognition.
Accordingly, taking into account a resolution furnished by the Hon. President, the Cabinet of Ministers has decided to grant policy approval for the establishment of the Chartered Computer Institute of Sri Lanka and to instruct the Legal Draftsman to prepare a draft bill in line with the proposed objectives.
it has become essential to introduce appropriate revisions to the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act No 54 of 2007 so that a proper formal mechanism can be maintained in treatment and rehabilitation.
Accordingly, considering a resolution forwarded by the Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs, the Cabinet of Ministers decided to grant the policy approval to revise the Drug Dependent Persons (Treatment and Rehabilitation) Act No 54 of 2007 and direct the Legal Draftsman to formulate a draft bill including the relevant amendments.
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