Australia to Apologize to Aborigines, But No Compensation is Planned

Australia's prime minister plans to apologize tomorrow to the country's indigenous minority residents for decades of historic mistreatment, including the removal of aboriginal children from their family homes to be raised elsewhere until as recently as the 1960s.

The apology, which has been requested for years, includes repeated use of the word "sorry," and is likely to be well-received by indigenous Australians, predicts managing editor Kirstie Parker of the Koori Mail, an aboriginal newspaper. However, she says that the apology is unlikely to end a continuing campaign for compensation, despite vehement government denials that it will be paid, reports the New York Times.

An award of $475,000 was made last year by a South Australian court to a man who was taken from his mother when he was a baby, on a theory of unlawful treatment and false imprisonment.

"The previous government, under Prime Minister John Howard, refused to apologize, partly because it did not feel responsible for the misdeeds of past administrations, but also because of fear that an apology would lead to enormous compensation claims," the Times reports.