LL-L "History" 2004.03.02 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 02.MAR.2004 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: From: "Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc." <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject: Cultural history

These days Belgium gets the international press because of a court case
against a Mr Dutroux & Co for kidnapping at least 6 girls and murdering at
least 4. Dutroux didn't act alone, and it took quite some time to
investigators to check all his connections and eventual networks. So this
case is brought in court about 8 years after Dutroux is caught. This is
even a long time for Belgian standards.

It was preceded by a lot of scandals, including the withdrawal of the
investigation from an examining magistrate (onderzoeksrechter; juge d'
instruction) by the Belgian High Court (Hof van Cassatie, also Hof van
Verbreking, Cour de Cassation), because he attended a spaghetti "souper"
(evening dinner) organized by the friends a saved girl. This sentence is
well known as the "spaghetti-arrest". Magistrates have to be impartial,
but the population didn't understand, and participated largely at a
massively
attended protest march (called "witte mars" because of the white ribbons
worn at the occasion)

Since Dutroux was caught, shortly after the disappearance of a (saved)
girl from Bertrix, in the Luxemburgian Ardennes, the "Assisenhof / Cour
d'Assices" (jury court) of Arlon is competent.

We use the opportunity for telling a few things about Arlon (Arel in
Luxembourgish, Aarlen in Dutch)

The town surrounds a fortification on a steep hill, at the crossing point
of the old Roman road W-E from Reims to Trier with the Roman road N-S from
Tongeren to Metz. The Roman name of the site was "Orolaunum vicus".

The pagus of Arlon became a Carolingian County, later (around 1200) a
marquisate. In 1214 it became part of the the County (later Duchy) of
Luxembourg.

Luxemburg became the "Dépt. des Forêts" under French occupation. At the
Vienna Congress it was assigned to the king of the Netherlands, separately
from the remainder of the Southern provinces, as a Grand-Duchy, as
compensation for the territories the Nassau family lost in Germany. This
also explains why it was subject to a separate hereditary regime, and went
to another branch of the Nassau family at the end of the 19th century.

But before, there had been the Belgian revolution. As a result of the
peace treaty of London, the East of the province of Limburg as also the
East of Luxembourg was left to the King of the Netherlands.

Basically Luxembourg was split along the Romance - Germanic language
borders. For strategic reasons though, the fortified city of Arlon in the
South-East, and the surrounding villages, though linguistically Germanic,
were granted to Belgium.

Arlon became the capital of the Belgian West of Luxembourg. Since the
large majority of the new province was Romance-speaking, French became
rapidly
the leading language in Arlon. Germanic dialects are still spoken by some
people in the villages around Arlon. Some groups are promoting standardized
Luxembourgish in the area, as a support for language survival.

Regards,
Roger

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