Page "Congo Free State" Paragraph 68

Adam Hochschild does not characterize the deaths as the result of a deliberate policy of genocide, but rather as the result of a brutal system of forced labor.

The Guardian reported in July 2001 that, after initial outrage by Belgian historians following the publications of Hochschild's book, the state-funded Museum of the Belgian Congo would finance an investigation into Hochschild's allegations.

The investigatory panel, likely to be headed by Professor Jean-Luc Vellut, was scheduled to report its findings in 2004.

An exhibition by the Museum of the Belgian Congo, called " The Memory of Congo " ( February 4, 2005 – October 9, 2005 ), was set up to tell the truth of what happened in both the Free State and Belgium's later colony.

Critics of the museum include Hochschild, who wrote an article for the New York Review of Books claiming he found " distortions and evasions " in the exhibition and stated " The exhibit deals with this question in a wall panel misleadingly headed ' Genocide in the Congo?

' This is a red herring, for no reputable historian of the Congo has made charges of genocide ; a forced labor system, although it may be equally deadly, is different.

" Early Day Motion 2251 presented to the British Parliament on 24 May 2006 called for recognition of " the tragedy of King Leopold's regime " as genocide and gained the signatures of 48 MPs.