World confronts colonial past

• UK PM defends history in statue row, says 'you can't edit history' 
• New Zealand removes statue of colonist
• More Belgian statues targeted in anti-racist protests
• Defying Trump, Republican-led Senate panel backs stripping Confederate names from military bases

Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday said a wave of anti-racism protests across Britain had been "hijacked by extremists", as protesters in different parts of the globe continued to vandalise statues of colonialist and racist figures.

Statues and place names honouring figures such as slavers and colonial military figures are being reassessed worldwide in response to anti-racism protests sparked by the police killing of African American man George Floyd.

In London, authorities boarded up several statues, including of World War II leader Winston Churchill, after previous damage and with further demonstrations planned.

Statues and monuments to figures involved in Britain's colonial past and the international slave trade have become increasing targets for activists over the last week. Their targeting has prompted calls for a re-examination of the country's historical legacy.

On Sunday, crowds in southwest England toppled a statue to a local slave trader and philanthropist, Edward Colston, and threw it into the harbour, prompting calls for others to be removed.

But while recognising the "legitimate desire to protest against discrimination", Johnson said in statement issued on Twitter: "We cannot now try to edit or censor our past. We cannot pretend to have a different history. The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations. They had different perspectives, different understandings of right and wrong. But those statues teach us about our past, with all its faults. To tear them down would be to lie about our history, and impoverish the education of generations to come."

Johnson acknowledged the anger of black and minority ethnic communities and said there had been "huge" strides in tackling discrimination in Britain.

With tensions running high, the Black Lives Matter group called off a demonstration planned for Saturday in London's Hyde Park after far-right groups said they would also protest.

Churchill's statue was vandalised last weekend by campaigners who say his policies led to the deaths of millions of people during famine in the Indian state of Bengal in 1943.

Johnson, who has written a biography of the wartime leader, said it was "absurd and shameful" his memorial would be targeted, as he fought against fascism and tyranny.

"Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial," the premier wrote.

Activists linked to the Stop Trump Coalition have compiled a crowd-sourced list of statues and monuments across Britain that they say "celebrate slavery and racism". The list includes figures such as the 16th century explorer Francis Drake, and Robert Clive, once described as an "unstable sociopath" who managed the East India Company in British-ruled India.

In New Zealand,  the city of Hamilton yesterday tore down a statue of the colonial military commander after whom it was named, joining a growing list of places worldwide that are reckoning with their past.

A crane hoisted the bronze sculpture of Captain John Fane Charles Hamilton from the town square after requests from local Maori and threats from anti-racism protesters to topple it. Hamilton was a naval commander who fought indigenous Maori defending their land against British colonial expansion in the 19th century.

The wave of protest against symbols of Belgium's colonial past intensified yesterday with at least two more royal statues targeted by anti-racism activists days before the anniversary of Congo's independence.

The brutal exploitation of Belgium's former central African colonies has long been a sensitive topic, and the recent wave of protests against police killings in the United States has reinvigorated campaigners.

On Friday, Belgium's modern royal family was dragged into the fray when a prince defended the record of his ancestor Leopold II, who once owned the then Congo Free State as a personal estate.

Historians say that millions of Africans from areas in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they worked on Leopold II's rubber plantations.

Several statues of the king, who ruled between 1865 and 1909, have been daubed with paint or torn down by protesters in recent weeks, and a petition has been launched for their removal. And some institutions have removed busts or statues from public view to defuse public anger.

Meanwhile, overnight, protesters daubed blood red paint on a bust of another king of the Belgians, Laurent and Philippe's uncle Baudouin who ruled until 1993, by the cathedral in Brussels.

In US, statues of Christopher Columbus from Boston to Miami have been beheaded and vandalized as calls to remove sculptures commemorating colonizers and slavers sweep America on the back of anti-racism protests.

Italian explorer Columbus, long hailed by school textbooks as the so-called discoverer of "The New World," is considered by many to have spurred years of genocide against indigenous groups.

Meanwhile, defying trump, The Republican-led US Senate Armed Services Committee voted to require the Department of Defense to rename military bases named after Confederate generals, setting up a clash with President Donald Trump, who opposes that change and promised a veto.

As demonstrations have swept the country, cities have removed Confederate statues and institutions have barred displays of the Confederate flag, saying they do not want to honor those who fought to continue enslaving black Americans.