By: RadhakrishnaNS
BRITAIN issued an apology on Thursday (22) for failures that meant ‘pervasive racism’ might have denied a proper commemoration to as many as 350,000 black and Asian service personnel who died fighting for the British Empire in world wars.
An independent inquiry commissioned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) found that hundreds of thousands of mostly African and Middle Eastern casualties from World War One were not commemorated by name, or at all.
The CWGC works to commemorate Commonwealth forces and ensure that all those killed in the two world wars are remembered in the same way, regardless of rank, background or religion.
Addressing parliament, British defence secretary Ben Wallace said there was no doubt prejudice had played a part in some of the failures of the Imperial War Graves Commission, the CWGC’s precursor.
“On behalf of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the government both at the time and today I want to apologise,” Wallace said. He also expressed ‘deep regret’ that it had taken so long to rectify the situation.
The report found that between 45,000 and 54,000 casualties, predominantly Indian, Egyptian, Somali and from East and West Africa, were commemorated “unequally”.
Another 116,000 casualties and as many as 350,000, predominantly from East Africa and Egypt, were not commemorated by name or possibly not at all.
