Britain maybe gonna apologize for slavery? - Sorrow, but not yet an apology

TheStar.com - News - Sorrow, but not yet an apology:

"LONDON–There are fresh calls here for the British government to issue a clear and unequivocal apology for the enslavement of millions of Africans, perpetrating the black holocaust and the racist ideology and legacy that followed.

Anglican bishops participating in a walk by thousands of Britons, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the law ending the slave trade, say British Prime Minister Tony Blair is the appropriate one to make the apology.

Ironically, the bishops are being pressured by a Pan-African Congress, whose president Cikiah Thomas is in Toronto, to pay reparations for the church's involvement in the slave trade.

In a letter to Archbishop Rowan Williams, Thomas challenged the Church of England to push the British government and agencies into taking responsibility for the damage on enslaved Africans. Thomas said the archbishop acknowledged receipt of the letter, sent in December. The church has apologized for its own damaging past, including the owning of the Codrington slave plantation in Barbados. But it has not offered reparations.

Blair has stated regret for what he called a 'crime against humanity.' Yesterday he delivered a taped message to hundreds gathered at a slave dungeon in Elmina, Ghana, to mark the UN-recognized anniversary."