Seeking apology for genocide: When nations confront their past

Infographics: TBS

Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar visited Dhaka recently. He claimed that two of the three unresolved issues from 1971 had long been settled, including Pakistan's apology for the genocide. Citing the 1974 tripartite agreement and former President Pervez Musharraf's remarks in the early 2000s, Dar suggested that the matter was resolved.  

But perhaps Dar has forgotten that just a decade ago, Islamabad had walked back on Musharraf's words, firmly rejecting any "complicity in committing crimes or war atrocities." Dhaka, as Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain reiterated, still demands an official apology. If reconciliation is the goal, is denial the right path to reach it?     

History shows that nations around the world have faced their past, sometimes with reluctance, sometimes with courage. The record of state apologies is neither simple nor complete, but it offers a mirror against which Pakistan's stance can be measured.      

Scandinavia's reckoning

In 1997, Norway's King Harald V apologised to the Sámi people for a century of forced assimilation, known as Norwegianisation. The Storting, Norway's parliament, reaffirmed this in November 2024 following the findings of a truth and reconciliation commission, formalising the state's recognition of its role. 

Colonial entanglements

Belgium has been compelled to face two painful legacies. In April 2000, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt apologised in Kigali for Belgium's failures during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, particularly its withdrawal of peacekeepers. 

Two decades later, in June 2020, King Philippe broke royal silence with a letter to Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi. Marking Congo's 60th independence anniversary, he expressed "deepest regrets" for colonial-era violence, echoed again in 2022 during his visit to Kinshasa.  

The Netherlands has also issued multiple apologies. In 2011, it acknowledged responsibility for the Rawagede massacre in Indonesia. King Willem-Alexander extended this further in 2020, apologising for Dutch military "excessive violence" between 1945 and 1949. 

Prime Minister Mark Rutte went further in 2022, after a damning study, admitting such violence was "systematic and widespread." In 2023, Willem-Alexander apologised for Dutch involvement in slavery, calling it a "crime against humanity." 

Germany has similarly moved, though slowly. In May 2021, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas formally recognised the genocide of the Herero and Nama in Namibia, with President Steinmeier slated to apologise before Namibia's parliament. 

Two years later, in November 2023, Steinmeier personally asked for forgiveness in Tanzania for atrocities during the Maji Maji rebellion, where hundreds of thousands perished.

Indigenous struggles across continents

Former settler colonies have also confronted their histories. On 13 February 2008, Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised to the "Stolen Generations" of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In Canada, Stephen Harper followed on 11 June 2008, apologising to Indigenous survivors of residential schools.

El Salvador's President Mauricio Funes apologised in 2010 for centuries of repression, citing specifically the massacres of 1832 and 1932.

The United States has issued two notable apologies: to Native Hawaiians in 1993, through Congress's "Apology Resolution" for the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom; and to Native Americans in 2009, although controversially hidden in a defence bill and stripped of legal force. In 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom went further, calling the treatment of Indigenous Californians "genocide."

New Zealand has apologised repeatedly, though piecemeal, to Māori iwi as part of settlements since the late 20th century. In Chile, Araucanía's governor Francisco Huenchumilla apologised to the Mapuche in 2014, calling their dispossession a "pending debt."

Mexico, too, has moved recently. In May 2021, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador apologised to the Maya for "terrible abuses" since the Spanish conquest. Four months later, he apologised to the Yaqui people, calling state crimes against them "one of the most shameful chapters" of Mexican history.

Argentina's courts broke new ground in 2022, declaring the 1924 Napalpí massacre of Toba and Mocoví peoples a "crime against humanity" and ordering reparative measures, including an apology from the state.

The unsettled question

From Europe to Africa, the examples show that apologies, whether full, partial, or symbolic, are part of how nations reckon with violent pasts. They are not panaceas. They rarely end the debate. Yet they remain essential in acknowledging the sufferings of the victims and creating the possibility of reconciliation. 

Currently, Bangladesh presses for an official apology from Pakistan; it joins a long global tradition of demanding recognition. The question is whether Pakistan, unlike many others, will continue to deny—or finally choose to acknowledge.