Cain Pieri
Appearances
Global News Podcast
UK announces European plan for peace in Ukraine
CONGOLSIETO BUENA BUENA In June 1960, Congolese people take to the streets, singing a song of hard-won independence. Before then, large parts of today's Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were under Belgian colonial rule. It was during that time that one day, Belgian soldiers enter a village and forcibly remove a four-year-old girl from her family.
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UK announces European plan for peace in Ukraine
Marie-Josée Lauchy is now 76 years old. And her story is not a one-off. Under colonial rule, Belgian officers stormed villages, seizing children with mixed-race heritage whom authorities saw as a threat to the colonial state. Bambi Koepens is a senior researcher at the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Belgium.
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UK announces European plan for peace in Ukraine
Marie-Josée spent her childhood in a Catholic institute, 600 kilometres away from her family. With independence coming so suddenly after 80 years of Belgian rule, the Congolese are furiously divided. As more African countries gained independence in the early 1960s, so did Marie-Josée and the friends she had made at the Institute.
Global News Podcast
UK announces European plan for peace in Ukraine
Some chose to stay in the newly emancipated Congo, while others sought refuge from the conflict that ensued during the country's struggle for independence. Marie-Josée ended up in France after she was denied Belgian citizenship.
Global News Podcast
UK announces European plan for peace in Ukraine
But in 2021, she and four other women who suffered the same treatment launched a legal case against the government of Belgium, accusing it of kidnapping and racial persecution. Michel Hirsch is their lawyer.
Global News Podcast
UK announces European plan for peace in Ukraine
During the first trial, the judges said that too much time had passed since the alleged crimes were committed. But the women appealed the court's decision and, on December 2nd, 2024, they were summoned to their lawyer's office to face the verdict.