Leaders of this Commonwealth of 56 countries (mostly former British colonies) met at a summit in Apia. King Charles III also participated in the event as part of his eleven-day tour of Australia and Samoa.
Different commonwealth countries On Friday they asked King Charles III that the The United Kingdom recognizes and repairs the brutalities of the British Empireespecially those linked to the slave trade from which the Crown benefited for centuries.
Leaders of this Commonwealth of 56 countries, mostly former British coloniesmet at a summit in Apia, the capital of Samoa, which was expected to focus on current issues such as climate change. But the meeting was overshadowed by history, with several African, Caribbean or Oceanic countries demanding financial compensation from London or, at least, political amendments for the colonial past. “The time has come for a real dialogue about how we fix these historic wrongs,” Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis told AFP. “The horrors of slavery left a deep generational wound in our communities and the fight for justice and reparative justice is far from over,” he said.
Experts estimate that Between 10 and 15 million people were transported as slaves from Africa to America for more than four centurieswithin the framework of a practice that ended around 1870. However, the exact number is unknown.
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Response of the British crown
Carlos III, from whom numerous countries demanded an apology, asked the attendees this Friday “reject the language of division” but said he understood “that the most painful aspects of our past continue to resonate.” “None of us can change the past. But we can commit, with all our hearts, to continuing to learn its lessons now. “find creative ways to correct enduring inequalities”he added.
He British Prime Minister Keir Starmer whose government faces serious budget problems, He refused to pay reparations and his advisors have ruled out a public apology at this summit. “The slave trade, slavery, was something aberrant and it is very important to start there,” Starmer told the British BBC during the summit. “So, the question is ‘where do we go from there?’ My opinion is that We should look forward, we should look at the current challenges,” he said.
Communiqué from the summit in Apia
The participants of the meeting are immersed in tough negotiations around a draft of the joint communiqué that calls for a debate on colonialism. A diplomatic source who requested anonymity told AFP that Developed countries were trying to soften the language of the final text. “The request for reparations does not consist of mere economic compensation, it consists of recognize the centuries-long impact of exploitation and ensure that the legacy of slavery is treated with honesty and integrity“insisted the Prime Minister of the Bahamas.
One of the candidates to be the The Commonwealth’s new secretary general, Lesotho’s Joshua Setipa, said reparations may include non-traditional forms of payment, such as financing to fight climate change. “We can find a solution that would start by correcting some injustices of the past and putting them in the context of what is happening now,” he told AFP before the summit.
With this summit, the King Charles III closes an eleven-day tour of Australia and Samoa, his first big trip abroad since his cancer diagnosis this year.
Source: Ambito
