Apologize to Aborigines, says new Labor head

Aborigines were hunted, killed and driven from their lands by European settlers

CANBERRA, Australia -- The Labor Party's new leader has said Australia must apologize for mistreating Aborigines.

Elected Thursday as the opposition leader following Labor's defeat at November 10 elections, Simon Crean said apologizing would be a priority of a future Labor government.

"You can't get lasting reconciliation with our indigenous population unless we have the sorry and then the dialogue," Crean told The Associated Press.

During colonization Aborigines were hunted, killed and driven from their lands by European settlers.

As recently as the 1970s officials were still taking Aborigine children from their families and placing them in orphanages, often run by churches, in a now discredited assimilation program.

The tens of thousands of people affected have become known as the "stolen generations."

While all six of Australia's state governments have formally apologized to Aborigines, Prime Minister John Howard refuses, arguing modern Australians should not say sorry for actions they did not personally commit.

Pope apologizes too

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Crean's comments come one day after Pope John Paul apologized to the indigenous peoples of Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands for injustices perpetrated by Catholic missionaries.

Promulgated over the Internet, John Paul's apology also included reference to separating children from their parents.

"The church expresses deep regret and asks forgiveness where her children have been or still are party to these wrongs," John Paul wrote.

He noted that in 1998, Oceania's bishops had "apologized unreservedly" for the "shameful injustices done to indigenous peoples," citing instances in which children were forcibly separated from their parents by missionaries to school the youngsters in Catholic teaching.

The pontiff's message was not well-received by all Australian Aborigines.

Churches key to policy

Chairman of the Croker Island Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation, Maurie Ryan-Japarta said John Paul should back his apology with financial compensation.

Ryan-Japarta said Christian churches played a crucial role in implementing the assimilation policies of Australian state and federal governments.

While members of the stolen generation had fought the federal government in the courts for compensation, they have not yet focused on churches.

"That's the next step I would like to do with the rest of the stolen generation -- say you (the church) had an enormous part to play in this whole policy since you were paid by the government to look after us," he told AP.

Ryan-Japarta, who was taken from his parents when he was four, said he would prefer the churches to take part in a reparation tribunal rather than fight compensation claims in the courts.

Aborigines, who have lived in Australia for at least 40,000 years, are now a minority of about 400,000 in the country's mostly white population of 19 million.

They are the poorest, sickest and most frequently jailed members of Australian society.