pictured being removed by workers outside the Museum of London
Docklands near Canary Wharf, following the death of George Floyd
who died in police custody in Minneapolis, London, Britain, June 9,
2020. JOHN SIBLEY / Reuters
A statue of 18th-century slave trader Robert Milligan has been
removed from its plinth outside a museum in the British capital
after officials decided it was no longer acceptable to the local
community.
The statue in front of the Museum of London Docklands came into
focus after demonstrators taking part in a global anti-racism
protest movement on Sunday tore down the statue of slave trader
Edward Colston in Bristol, southwest England, and dumped it into
the river.
The pulling down of Milligan’s statue on Tuesday came as
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan said more statues of imperialist figures
could be removed from the United Kingdom’s streets as the May 25
killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of
white police in the US city of Minneapolis continued to spark
protests and drive change around the world.
On the day Floyd was being buried in his hometown of Houston,
Texas, Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the UK
capital’s monuments reflected its diversity. It will review
statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and
consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayor’s office
said.
“It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a
large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while
this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of
our communities to life in our capital has been willfully ignored,”
Khan said.
International protests against racial injustice and police
violence sparked by Floyd’s killing show no sign of abating.
In Britain, where more than 200 demonstrations have been held so
far, people gathered in London’s Parliament Square for a vigil
timed to coincide with Floyd’s funeral.
Elsewhere in the UK, demonstrators gathered to demand the
removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a Victorian imperialist in
southern Africa who made a fortune from mines and endowed the
University of Oxford’s Rhodes scholarships.
Several hundred supporters of the Rhodes Must Fall group chanted
“Take it down” before holding a silent sit-down vigil in the street
to memorialise Floyd.
A large statue of Rhodes that had stood since 1934 was removed
from South Africa’s University of Cape Town in April 2015, after a
student-led campaign that also urged the university to increase its
numbers of Black lecturers and to make the curriculum less
Eurocentric.
In Edinburgh, Scotland, there are calls to tear down a statue of
Henry Dundas, an 18th-century politician who delayed Britain’s
abolition of slavery by 15 years.
The leader of Edinburgh City Council, Adam McVey, said he would
“have absolutely no sense of loss if the Dundas statue was removed
and replaced with something else or left as a plinth.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that it was “a
cold reality” that people of colour in Britain experienced
discrimination, but said those who attacked police or desecrated
public monuments should face “the full force of the law.”
Protests
in France, Belgium
Statues, as long-lasting symbols of a society’s values, have become
a focus of protest around the world.
In Antwerp, authorities used a crane on Tuesday to remove a
statue of Belgium’s former King Leopold II that had been splattered
with red paint by protesters, taking it away for repairs. It was
unclear whether it would be re-erected.
Leopold took control of Congo in 1885 and enslaved many of its
people to collect rubber, reigning over a brutal regime under which
some 10 million Congolese died.
France has seen nationwide protests calling for greater law
enforcement accountability, and more demonstrations were being held
on Tuesday evening.
Protesters marching in solidarity with United States
demonstrations over Floyd’s death have also called for justice for
Adama Traore, a young man of Malian origin whose death in French
police custody in 2016 is still under investigation.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has met police and
citizens’ groups as part of efforts to calm tensions. He said on
Tuesday that the code of police ethics would be reviewed. The
French government has also announced that the chokehold would no
longer be taught in police training.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
pictured being removed by workers outside the Museum of London
Docklands near Canary Wharf, following the death of George Floyd
who died in police custody in Minneapolis, London, Britain, June 9,
2020. JOHN SIBLEY / Reuters
A statue of 18th-century slave trader Robert Milligan has been
removed from its plinth outside a museum in the British capital
after officials decided it was no longer acceptable to the local
community.
The statue in front of the Museum of London Docklands came into
focus after demonstrators taking part in a global anti-racism
protest movement on Sunday tore down the statue of slave trader
Edward Colston in Bristol, southwest England, and dumped it into
the river.
The pulling down of Milligan’s statue on Tuesday came as
London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan said more statues of imperialist figures
could be removed from the United Kingdom’s streets as the May 25
killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, at the hands of
white police in the US city of Minneapolis continued to spark
protests and drive change around the world.
On the day Floyd was being buried in his hometown of Houston,
Texas, Khan said he was setting up a commission to ensure the UK
capital’s monuments reflected its diversity. It will review
statues, murals, street art, street names and other memorials and
consider which legacies should be celebrated, the mayor’s office
said.
“It is an uncomfortable truth that our nation and city owes a
large part of its wealth to its role in the slave trade and while
this is reflected in our public realm, the contribution of many of
our communities to life in our capital has been willfully ignored,”
Khan said.
International protests against racial injustice and police
violence sparked by Floyd’s killing show no sign of abating.
In Britain, where more than 200 demonstrations have been held so
far, people gathered in London’s Parliament Square for a vigil
timed to coincide with Floyd’s funeral.
Elsewhere in the UK, demonstrators gathered to demand the
removal of a statue of Cecil Rhodes, a Victorian imperialist in
southern Africa who made a fortune from mines and endowed the
University of Oxford’s Rhodes scholarships.
Several hundred supporters of the Rhodes Must Fall group chanted
“Take it down” before holding a silent sit-down vigil in the street
to memorialise Floyd.
A large statue of Rhodes that had stood since 1934 was removed
from South Africa’s University of Cape Town in April 2015, after a
student-led campaign that also urged the university to increase its
numbers of Black lecturers and to make the curriculum less
Eurocentric.
In Edinburgh, Scotland, there are calls to tear down a statue of
Henry Dundas, an 18th-century politician who delayed Britain’s
abolition of slavery by 15 years.
The leader of Edinburgh City Council, Adam McVey, said he would
“have absolutely no sense of loss if the Dundas statue was removed
and replaced with something else or left as a plinth.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has acknowledged that it was “a
cold reality” that people of colour in Britain experienced
discrimination, but said those who attacked police or desecrated
public monuments should face “the full force of the law.”
Protests
in France, Belgium
Statues, as long-lasting symbols of a society’s values, have become
a focus of protest around the world.
In Antwerp, authorities used a crane on Tuesday to remove a
statue of Belgium’s former King Leopold II that had been splattered
with red paint by protesters, taking it away for repairs. It was
unclear whether it would be re-erected.
Leopold took control of Congo in 1885 and enslaved many of its
people to collect rubber, reigning over a brutal regime under which
some 10 million Congolese died.
France has seen nationwide protests calling for greater law
enforcement accountability, and more demonstrations were being held
on Tuesday evening.
Protesters marching in solidarity with United States
demonstrations over Floyd’s death have also called for justice for
Adama Traore, a young man of Malian origin whose death in French
police custody in 2016 is still under investigation.
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has met police and
citizens’ groups as part of efforts to calm tensions. He said on
Tuesday that the code of police ethics would be reviewed. The
French government has also announced that the chokehold would no
longer be taught in police training.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES