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Leon Neal / AFP - Getty Images
Lawyer Martyn Day, left, Agnes Gitau, daughter of a Mau Mau veteran, center, and other supporters of three Kenyans who were tortured by British colonial authorities celebrate as they leave the High Court in London on Friday after the group won the right to proceed with their legal claims against the U.K. government.
LONDON -- A U.K. court decided Friday that three elderly Kenyans who were victims of torture during British rule of their country in the 1950s can claim compensation despite the passage of time, in a landmark ruling that could clear the way for thousands of other cases.
Judge Richard McCombe rejected the British Foreign Office’s argument that the events took place too long ago for a fair hearing to take place and ordered that the case should proceed to a full trial.
During an earlier hearing in July, the U.K. government admitted for the first time that people were tortured during the “Mau Mau” uprising. Guy Mansfield, a lawyer representing Britain, told the three claimants that he did “not want to dispute the fact that terrible things happened to you."
Colonial sins return to haunt former world powers
Paulo Muoka Nzili told that hearing he was castrated after his arrest by the colonial authorities; Wambuga Wa Nyingi said he was beaten unconscious as 11 others were beaten to death; and Jane Muthoni Mara said she was beaten with sticks and sexually assaulted with a glass bottle containing hot water after she gave food to Mau Mau fighters.
McCombe wrote in his judgment Friday that he had concluded a fair trial still remained possible. "The documentation is voluminous ... the governments and military commanders seem to have been meticulous record keepers," he said.
Express Newspapers / Hulton Archive via Getty Images
British police examine suspects for the seven initiation cuts on the body that marked a member of the Mau Mau secret society in November 1952.
Obama's grandfather detained in camp
President Barack Obama wrote in his book "Dreams From My Father" that his Kenyan grandfather Onyango was held for six months in a detention camp by the colonial authorities, returning "very thin and dirty" and with "difficulty walking" and his head "full of lice."
Britain previously argued that the claimants should actually sue Kenya’s government, which took over from the colonial regime on independence in 1963, but that was also rejected by the court.
Friday’s ruling appeared to remove the last remaining argument against paying compensation, though the U.K. Foreign Office later issued a statement saying it planned to appeal.
There were joyous scenes at the Kenya Human Rights Commission in Nairobi, when Nzili, 85, Nyingi, 84, and Mara, 73, and supporters heard the judge’s decision.
“Thank you God, you’ve heard our prayer, you heard our cry for mercy,” they could be heard singing, according to a translation, during a phone call to a commission official.
They are seeking the creation of a welfare fund for victims of colonial oppression and an apology from Britain.
From ITV News: Tutu urges UK to show compassion to Kenyan torture victims
Martyn Day, a British lawyer representing the trio, said in a statement that despite Britain’s admission that the claimants were “brutally tortured by the British colony” it had been “hiding behind technical defenses for three years in order to avoid any legal responsibility.”
“This was always morally repugnant and today the judge has also rejected these arguments,” he added. “Following this judgment, we can but hope that our government will at last do the honorable thing and sit down and resolve these claims.”
'Reverberate' worldwide
Day, noting the age of the claimants, said he hoped the British government would settle out of court as it could take a year for the full trial to be heard. A fourth claimant, Ndiku Mutwiwa Mutua, died after the case began.
Day described the ruling as “a historic judgment which will reverberate around the world and will have repercussions for years to come.”
Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images, file
Wambugu wa Nyingi, pictured in London on April 6, 2011, previously told the court he was beaten unconscious as 11 others were beaten to death by colonial authorities in Kenya in the 1950s.
“There will undoubtedly be victims of colonial torture from Malaya to the Yemen, from Cyprus to Palestine, who will be reading this judgment with great care,” Day said.
Dan Thea, 69, who took the Mau Mau oath at the age of eight and who now runs the Mau Mau Justice Network, told NBC News that there were 40,000 surviving veterans in Kenya who would take hope from the ruling.
More news about Africa from NBCNews.com
Thea, who said his late sister had been raped by British officers when she was about 20, said he was “bitter, still very angry” about the actions of the British colonial authorities.
“It was totally, totally criminal. It was basically racist and the whole point was to ensure that Kenya became … a permanent white settlement, just as had happened in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa,” he said.
“Kenya was not going to be like other African states, free after a certain time. It was identified as the ‘England of East Africa,’ that’s what they called it, ... because of its climate and rich agricultural land,” he added.
'Not terrorists'
Agnes Gitau, a Kenyan whose father was a member of the Mau Mau movement, said victory in the case would show that “my people were not just bad guys, were not militants, were not terrorists -- these were people fighting for a cause” and that “Africans are not barbaric.”
“I was made to believe they were terrorists from a history book, but now this sets me free,” she told NBC News outside the court.
A statement issued by the U.K. Foreign Office said the British government was “disappointed” by the ruling.
“The judgement has potentially significant and far reaching legal implications,” the statement said. “The normal time limit for bringing a civil action is 3 to 6 years. In this case, that period has been extended to over 50 years despite the fact that the key decision makers are dead and unable to give their account of what happened.”
“At the same time, we do not dispute that each of the Claimants in this case suffered torture and other ill treatment at the hands of the Colonial Administration,” it added. “We have always said that we understand the pain and grievance felt by those, on all sides, who were involved in the divisive and bloody events of the Emergency period in Kenya, and it is right that those who feel they have a case are free to take it to the courts.”
The case stems from the so-called Kenyan "Emergency" of 1952-1961, during which fighters from the Mau Mau movement attacked British targets, causing panic among white settlers and alarming the authorities in London.
Tens of thousands of rebels were killed by colonial forces and an estimated 150,000 Kenyans, many of them unconnected to the Mau Mau, were held in detention camps likened by a leading historian of the period to Soviet gulag labor camps.
Mau Mau movement illegal until 2003
The Mau Mau insurgency caused deep trauma on all sides and remains controversial in Kenya, where the first two presidents after independence in 1963, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, tried to minimize its role in the national fight for freedom.
The Mau Mau split Kenya's most numerous ethnic group, the Kikuyu, between those who joined the insurgency and so-called "loyalists" who sided with the British.
Many former Mau Mau fighters endured a lifetime of poverty after coming out of their forest hide-outs, never having won the land they fought for as it was given mostly to their loyalist foes.
A legal ban on the Mau Mau movement was lifted only in 2003, after President Mwai Kibaki came to power.
Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com
David Anderson, professor of African politics at Oxford University, who wrote a book called “Histories of the Hanged: Britain's Dirty War in Kenya and the End of Empire,” told NBC News that the ruling was “amazing,” saying “this moment has been a long time coming” for the British government.
“It astonishes me they do not have the political acumen to understand this matter could be settled,” he said. “If we go to full trial, the revelations in that hearing will be even greater than what we have heard so far.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Perhaps the colonial, imperialist powers will finally be held accountable for the crimes against people they torture and stole from to support their greed and power. It wasn't just Germany and the Nazis who commit grievous crimes against humanity. England, Spain, Germany, Portugal, France all committed crimes against humanity for centuries. It is time they pay for their glutonous raping of others countries.
Humans have been killing, raping and pillaging each other since we were in caves. It's not anything specific to any one people or time. Africans still make slaves of one another to this day and sex slaves are all over the globe.
I have no problem with people who are alive and were treated unjustly seeking justice. But when people who were not mistreated start trying to get reparations for something that was done by dead people to dead people, that's when I start having problems.
hs321, Don't think that shifting the blame from the UK will erase their crime. You're saying that since people have been doing this for centuries then its ok?They should be held accountable.
When Obama was running in 2004, Murdoch's media outlets (including Fox, but especially the Sun) contended that it would be an awful thing for Brits if he was elected. He based this on the fact that Obama's grandfather had been both a WWII war hero in the British Army, but was also tortured daily for six months during the Mau Mau War. The British were not smart enough to realize that Obama's grandfather was a member of a cultural group not involved in the unrest.
Murdoch contended that no one could ever forget that is grandfather, even a grandfather he had never met, was illegally and stupidly tortured by a mean and vindictive Colonial power. Murdoch tried to convince the Brits that Obama would "punish" them in ways that were not even conceivable yet.
Not a bit of it happened. But you have to love Murdoch and Fox for their sheer ignorance.
Eezy...Duggan brought up injustices done by numerous nations during different times. That's what I was responding to.
Please re-read the 1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph, which, in words you might prefer, means the UK should pay-up for treating these people unjustly.
Using Duggan's principles, the UK should be able to seek reparations from the Romans, who murdered, tortured, raped, pillaged and made slaves of them for almost 200 years.
Here we go...we'll have every black in America wanting reparations for the slavery of 5 generations ago...ridiculous!
So people alive today should have to pay for crimes committed by OTHERS centuries ago? How you gonna collect from the Mongol Horde, the Romans, the Celts?
Obama will have some free time soon, maybe he can represent them.
Duggan, I beg your pardon . . .you ignored the hordes of palefaces that ravaged this continent, and are still cheating Native Americans.
Conveniently forgotten in all this is that the Mau Mau were not labelled terrorists for nothing. Also forgotten (not mentioned) are the barbarous elements of the Mau Mau initiation requirements . . . including bestiality, rape, and dismemberment. Let them have their day in court, but then read out the things that these 'freedom fighters' did to the white settlers. Then their compensation will be fairly assessed as four-fifths of five-eighths of f.a. and completion of the sentences they so richly deserve.
@YupikesK1 - No, he said "England, Spain, Germany, Portugal, France all committed crimes against humanity for centuries." I think that covers "founders" of North America...
I lived in Kenya during the Mau Mau reign of terror, maybe we should be sueing the present Kenya government for compensation on behalf of the hundreds that were hacked to death or maimed during that period.I am not talking just about the white settlers but also the black africans that opposed the Mau Mau TERRORISTS.
Most of the problems were tribal & not colonialist, i wish these so called experts would get their facts straight.
A number of so called African leaders are still raping and pillaging their own countries to this day and they have been independant for over 50 years.
Don't comment unless you know the FACTS.
England, Spain, Germany, America, all countries have done it and some countries do it even know. The whole world know's America still does it behind close doors. Can you really see America having to pay for its crimes against humanity for making war on countries to take its oil, to stop them doing what other countries want. America is known for raping more countries in this current century than any other country to date, maybe you should think about blaming other countries for its previous crimes and think about countries like America that are doing it to this very day. Just because Obama closed one of the prisons that tortures people from across the globe, doesn't mean America doesn't stick people under your house and do a Jog Saw routine on everyone and pretends nothing is happening. The world isn't blind you know
The mau-mau's were terrorists by every defination. Even the liberal papers of the day enjoyed posting pictures of "good" mau-mau's dead in the road.
...I'm American.....where is all this free oil we are supposed to have from some country we went to war with?
Hey, I am part Cherokee. Does that mean I can sue the United States government for atrocities committed against American Indians ?
Hey, I am part Irish. Does that mean I can sue the U.K. for autrocities committed against us Irish folks ?
Hey, I am part Dutch. Does that mean I can sue Holland for taking away my rights to grow tulips ?
Hey, I live on Main Street America. Does that mean I can sue the Federal Reserve for inflating my money ?
Hey, my vehicle uses gas. Does that mean I can sue this Administration for the skyrocketing gas prices.
I can hardly wait to hear what the United Nations has up it's sleeves for their "World Redistribution of Wealth" court cases. Wait a minute, no courts required....just vote on "whatever" at the U.N. since the membership is full of PROGRESSIVES.
This is ancient history, compared to the fact that the US was torturing plenty of people as little as 4 years ago.
None of these things would have happened if the Brits had stayed where they belong. No one asked them to come to Kenya or any place else.
There are many things I like about the Brits, but their habit of disrespecting the borders of other nations is not one of them. They carved Africa up and consumed it like an apple pie.
Ohh great, theres going to be no end to mega class action lawsuits has every western lawyer rushes to this new gold mine of legal costs..
Are you a American citizen? If so, your out of luck, this is only for the poor 3rd world. World redistribution of wealth is coming to a federal courthouse near you soon..
You "world redistribution of wealth" conspiracy theorists are a little late to catch on... the WTO has been around since 1995.
Duggan,your statements are boarding between fringe lunatic and hardcore anarchist,all that aside ,human nature is an evolving thing subject to bouts of regressive behaviour, the Mao Mao were in a word "animals" who were involved in heinous acts of barbarity, we had a different view in the past of law and order,back then perpetrators of crimes were punished severely,not given sex changes paid for by the tax payer,in the past, we made prisons to reform and correct....not to store and house...any wonder why prison populations have been soaring. Perhaps we may gain from a less civilized approach to crime and punishment. And the "glutinous raping of other countries" is the story of mankind been doing it for thousands of years ,don't expect things to change much...it's human nature there choir boy.
wire557, thanks for showing us just how little concern you have for your fellow human. You think your remark makes you cute and belittles the importance of this situation, but in actuality, it makes you seem ugly and belittles you. You've revealed what a small person you are by comments like this.
wire...
The funny thing is you would probably claim to be a good American...one who believes in the Constitution.
When in fact you're a fake...someone who has NO idea what it REALLY means to be American...and all the good that it stands for.
Mikey Starsky, if your comment above was not so pathetically clueless it might almost be entertaining! Don't like America much, then if you live here please feel free to move elsewhere. I'm sure the country will survive just fine without you! If you are not from here, then you really don't have the right to judge us!
Will there be offsetting claims by the thousands hacked to death by the Mau Mau during that time period?
There were brutal atrocities on both sides, so this is hardly a case of innocent people being brutalized. Look at what happened during the Lari Massacre by the Mau Mau.
wire557 "I propose we give back that $23 in beads and trinkets and let them own Manhattan again."
Actually, that was a neat scam by the Indians - Manhattan Island was actually owned by a different tribe than the one that sold it to the Dutch.
LOL
So when Madoff dies, none of his victims could claim money from his estate? Oh wait...they could and the ends of the earth will be scoured to find as much as possible, so then why can't the estates of former slave owners and/or anyone who benefited (e.g. the Government of the US) be sued?
Oh! I get it now...Madoff screwed white people, and that's a no-no.
duggan,
Or it could just be another means for poor africa to get money.
Well, had the colonial powers not looted, raped, and stolen everything their land had, then "poor" Africa wouldn't be so poor. The way I see it the colonial power OWE this money, and much more to "poor" Africa.
Unless you are in their shoes you wont have a clue about what happened during that specific time. People were killed in their own country by out siders.
I think there needs to be a Statute of Limitations on everything.
Europe and America have given billions in foreign aid to African countries over several decades. What have they done with it?
spoken like a true white guy.
Life expectancy in Kenya is 54.1 years. 167 rank in the world. How many people from the 1950s are still alive? Surely not the 40K that is being claimed. How they going to prove 1. That they were tourtured and 2. when they were born and who they are considering in such a backwards place documentation is sketchy at best.
Africa was a crap hole before the 'colonial' powers got there. It is a crap hole today after the 'colonial' powers left. And it will be a crap hole 1-2-3, ad infinum generations from now as well. It's a culture and people problem. Until they 'fix' themselves it's always going to be the bed they made, or the pile of crap they wallow in.
This decision does nothing and is just throwing more international money down a rat hole if awarded.
@ Richard - Africa is a big place. Not everyone there is "poor"
@ HS321- Aid is not just given to the continent entire (see above) so to say "what did they do with the money is ignorant. That's like a bank saying "We gave your neighbor a loan last year so we cant give you one this year. What did you do with all that money that you want so now?" or "You've worked at this company for 20 years, why should we pay you because you were castrated on the job or had hot water poured in your vagina? Workers comp? what did you do with all of the money you were given before?". Just because you give someone money does not give you free reign to hurt them.
@ Devils Son - A) Nazi soldiers are still being put on trial when they find them. B) Just because the life expectancy of a country is one thing it doesn't mean that once you reach that age you just die. C) If these events in question happened in the 50's and you are implying that someone born after this would pretend that they were a part of it then I'm assuming that you believe the man in the picture to be about 60...in which case I would question if you know any black ppl personally, because us who historically originated from these "backwards places" are ppl that have the God given blessed melanin producing skin and suffer from an affliction called 'Blackious Dontcrackous' and that man looks to be about 80
Cniht...What historical documentation do you base your opinion of
The historical documents written by the "colonial powers"? I thought so. A further exploration into the history of pre-colonial Africa may be in order.
Additionally
I would urge you to a further exploration as to the causes of this situation. Like the fact that when the Belgians left the Congo, there wasn't a single doctor (MD) left in the country. I think there was like 3 people in the entire country with a college degree. Way to prepare them for post-colonial life.
The English did do a better job then most powers though, at preparing their former colonies for success after independence. Just look around the world today. The commonwealth countries, the West Indies, etc. are better off than their neighbors.
jonedep, he learned his history of Africa the same place most Americans learned it --- Tarzan movies.
Devil's son raises an excellent point. All this court ruling did was give Kenyans the right to appeal for compensation. Actually receiving compensation (and receiving it before they die) is another battle entirely.
I'm no lawyer, but proving that you were tortured 50 years ago seems like a daunting task.
Hey, but this is liberal cry baby britain we're talking about. Known for welcoming in how ever many refugeees as needed, even if they're just looking for better jobs and were fine in their home countries. I expect the British court to surrender the entire nation over to them.
England has a high amount of male homosexuality per capita and also interestingly a high amount of LIBERALS !!! This judge and maybe most judges in the UK are fu&%^$ !
Awesome! This is a great victory for justice; it is just sad that it took so long to achieve, but nonetheless those responsible need to be held accountable for their actions, regardless of how much time has past.
More of the same social liberalism road that Obama is taking us down. That is the direction that Obama and the liberal social Democrats are pushing us.
Should we have to pay for what happened 100-200-300 or more years ago. That was then, this is now.
I don't give a sh*t what happened back then. We should not have to pay taxes to compensate people who we had no part in the abuse.
With the ignorant, liberal, socialistic U.K. government opening up the courts to this kind of crap, where will it stop. Another reason Europe is going broke. No end to the money to hand out.
If we paid the Japanese, they deserved it. But, when we paid them, what about the Germans who were rounded up during WW11 and had their lives taken from them. Bet you didn't know we did that here in this country.
Please give me a textbook definition of socialism then logically explain how this has anything whatsoever to do with socialism. Besides, these aren't things that happened 200-300 years ago. They happened within the like times of some people still living today. Furthermore, President Obama has nothing to do with this; it is between the U.K. and Kenya. However, President Obama has been one of the greatest Presidents we've had in the past 100 years. I can't wait for him to be reelection on November 6!
How was the court able to hear this? Were the Kenyans considered subjects of the crown at that point in time?
It IS deplorable the many offences that have happened.
However, are YOU, VINCE, calling for the resolution to finding and hold accountable the ANAL RAPE, REAL TORTURE, and Incomprehensible VIOLENCE that happened to our Amabssador in Libya??? Or is that toooo beyond your LIBERAL mindset???
What are YOU doing about the slavery of Chrisytians by modern Muslims??? Not in your LIBERAL BS mindset??? Or maybe you are actually one of the RARE LIBERALs that actually are AWARE of anything but your LIBERAL Pretense of IGNORANCE???
Why would people like you think it okay to deregulate the banks and Wall Street AGAIN....knowing full well what these criminal Republicans will do....rape the American taxpayer AGAIN.....heck, they're laughing now at us....here we go again....
But you absolutely hate it when the rich guys have to pay for the murder, rape, and injury to other human beings....particularly if they're of color.
Would you not say collecting taxes from all for schools, fire and police protection, public libraries and pools and parks, Social Security Program, the Medicare Program.....these are all examples of ...Socialism...don't people like you think so? Whether it's income tax collection, State sales tax collection, etc. we all pay for our collective good...to enhance our lives and promote safety.
rdx111, can you show me where in the article it says anything about what happened to our ambassador in Libya? If you had actually READ it, you would have seen it was about the UK and Kenya. Libya was never mentioned. Also, nowhere in the article did it say anything about Christians being held as slaves by Muslims. (Notice the correct way to spell "Christian"- no "Y"). Typical idiotic conservative, Tea Klux Klan nonsense of throwing red herrings out that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Typical BS from the right is to ignore injustice and turn things so that it is about them. This article and this discussion have absolutley NOTHING to do with the things you mentioned. Also, my liberal "pretense" of ignornace? What did I pretend to be ignorant of? You shouldn't use words that you don't know the meaning of. Please grow a few more brain cells before commenting in the future.
Christians* and don't make religion apart of it. We don't want some crusade starting again.
Romney didn't say the banks needed to be deregulated. He said we need current, flexible regulations.
(Nice try though.)
Steven100...If you don't want to pay people for things that:
What should the US do about the people it tortured between 2001 and 2009?
Should we pay them?
At least admit that we were wrong when we tortured them (like the Brits did)?
Equating this decision to slavery reparations or anything like it is ridiculous. The torture victims (if and when they are deemed so by the UK courts) are the actual people wronged, not their descendants!
I agree that hereditary victimhood or guilt is an idiotic concept, but this is a completely different situation.
JONEDEP,
yea, being kenya probably doesnt know what an airplane is, i dont think a bunch od kenyans flew some planes into Iconic buildings in the UK.
so take your terrorist loving ARSE and shove it in your pie hole!!!
those TERRRORIST that were interrogated GOT WHAT THEY DESERVE!!!
damn liberials are americas worst enemy!
I know why obama killed Osama, cause if Osama were to ruun for president he would win!!!
at least we know Osmam hated Americe, this guy obama is a Terrorist in a president office.
you libs dont like it here, how about i get a nice guy from afghanastan to fly you guys to europe!
OMG...
I'm pretty sure the terrorists that were on the planes on 9/11, all died that day. We tortured plenty of people who had NOTHING to do with 9/11 and weren't terrorist at all. Try actually doing a little research on the subject, before just assuming that the US can do no wrong.
Liberals aren't America's worst enemy, YOU ARE, and all the other morons like you who actually believe in "the war or terror". What a dope. Time to make yourself an aluminum foil hat, that should help keep the voices out.
BTW, I have no intention of surrendering my country, and all that it stands for, to idiots like you. I'm staying put and fighting for the true principles of the US Constitution.
If you believe in torture, which is forbidden by the Constitution, maybe it's you who should leave and go to Europe...but then again, with you way of thinking, I doubt they'd take you.
Not really. Look no further than Sweden and Norway to see what your policies do to your nation. Open the country up to refugees because 'humanity.' Double crime rates.
'We need to donate money to the poor."
Economic collapse.
Liberalism, I'm talking about the idea of empathy over self-preservation will kill millions of people. And your responsible for it.
...
This will set the precedent for reparations for all black folks in the U.S.
About time.
.
Obama / Biden in 2012.
...
Please take your Political Campaign Signs and stickers elsewhere. Your absolutely changing NO ones mind with that drivel. Take it to the debate.
Where is the BLACK CHURCH decrying Muslim
SLAVERY of Christians??? Jesse Jackson (Pathetic) Al Sharpton (Pathetic) Race
pandering scum of the LOWEST hypocrites on the face of the Earth
Racist Anyone??? Your Hipocrisy is appalling, and self-indicting. Herman Cain, Condoleeza Rice, Alan Keyes, and other Black Americans are GREAT examples of EXCELLENT persons with NO regard to the color of their skin. You, however, refer to 'Black FOLKS' what a pathetic indictment of your RACISM.
Where is your condemnation of modern Slavery in the World??? A$$HOLE.. Most of Modern Slavery is by BLACKS in the name of the MUSLIM 'faith'. Get educated you RACIST A$$HOLE
rdx111, this article isn't about slavery in the modern world. Please learn to stay on topic. Also, no one cares about your political views, mainly because you aren't informed enough to hold legitimate views. Your red herrings and ad hominem just how truly weak your argument is. You are contributing NOTHING to this discussion.
nothingnewhere -
There isn't a black person alive in the U.S. who was a slave in this county. And there is not a single person alive who bears ANY responsibility for what happened in the past.
Blacks in this country want "reparation"?
Fine.
Than I want reparation for all the cities black hoodlums have destroyed with their gang violence and their riots. I want reparations for the BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of dollars that predominately white suburban taxpayers have been forced to funnel into our largely black populated cities to keep them and their schools afloat. I live in NJ, cities like Newark, Camden, Trenton and Irvington immediately come to mind.
I want reparations for all the black criminals overflowing our prisons and costing taxpayers a fortune to house them.
I want reparations for all the black families who have been completely dependant on government handouts for multiple generations - and keep on having more and more kids they can't support and have no idea how to raise properly.
Do you want me to go on?
...
These blacks are underprivileged and deserve something for what was done to their ancestors.
Same principle as in Kenya.
.
Obama / Biden in 2012.
...
No, they deserve NOTHING except the exact same opportunities as every other American. Perhaps their own poor decision making has a great deal to do with their personal failures? Like dropping out of school at 15? Having multiple children with multiple men that those women have no capability or desire to parent properly and who largely view each additional child as an additional paycheck courtesy of the taxpayers? Maybe you stop having kids with irresponsible men and wait until you are married and financially secure enough to support kids before you have them. Hmmm? How about THAT? How about not abusing drugs and alcohol? How about making an effort to speak proper English? How about caring about education?
How about the failing schools? They are GIVEN a free public school education yet the failure rate among largely black schools is mind-blowing. Why is that? Could it possibly have anything to do with the fact that the majority of those kids are being born to and "raised" by people who are drug and alcohol abusers, who don't give a rat's a$$ about their kids OR their education? Who do you think it is that is "raising" all those black kids who become absolutely cold-blooded ruthless gang members, some as young as 11 yrs old? Do you really think those kids are coming from stable homes with a mother and a father who support themselves?
I am sick to death of excuses being made for those people. I'm sick of supporting them, I'm sick of the fact that they keep irresponsibly reproducing and creating endless future generations of career criminals and welfare queens. And talk of "reparations" makes my blood boil. As I already made quite clear, if we are going to get into discussions of "reparations", than I would say it's going to be the inner city black community in this country who is going to end up with the bigger bill.
And honestly, if what people like you want is a real race war in this country, keep talking about "reparations". I think people like you seriously underestimate how angry you are making a whole lot of Americans, Americans who have been arming themselves in droves.
They don't deserve a bag of sh*&t because as soon as you give them something they will ruin it. Their ancestors would be ashamed of them. Reparations have been paid a100x over because wages back in the slave days were nothing compared to what we have already given in welfare, and college funding.
And nothingnew? Did you ever hear of something called "affirmative action"? Blacks in this country have ALREADY been given all kinds of "reparations" and in fact, those are racist policies that need to come to an end. No one should be treated differently than someone else just because of their skin color. And that works BOTH ways.
Insanity.. If they dislike the US so much..get their butts back to KENYA and AFRICA in general... Bye.....don't let the welfare check hit you in the butt...
You people need to unknot your panties, slavery reparations is never going to happen. Can you imagine the absurd impracticality of making millions of people prove that they're descended from a slave? That's the only way you could possibly do it, since not every African-American has slave roots, and many others who can "pass as white" today undoubtedly do.
McGee - logic such as yours doesn't really seem to be the driving force behind much of the decisions our government has been making recently, so forgive me if I'm not swayed by your argument. There is no guarantee whatsoever that any such process would take place. And "reparations" can take many forms besides direct payments to individuals, but still represent a mass transfer of wealth to the black community. "Reparations" HAVE been widely discussed in this country and I would not be at all surprised if Obama makes such a move if he is to be re-elected.
grilledcheesesandwich, you are right they deserve the same opportunity as any other American. They don't have those opportunities or at least historically have not had them. After 200 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow a much higher percentage of African Americans are BORN into poverty. I say the surviving victims of institutionalized discrimination are entitled to compensation in some form. And you would not be at all surprised if President Obama made it a campaign issue? Please name one issue regarding race that he has ever addressed. He runs from any type of racial issue and refuses to take part in anything that might have even a suggetion of racial overtones.
Vince - cry me a river. MY ancestors all came here with NOTHING, didn't speak the language, and they were jewish. Gee, it's not as if jews have never faced discrimination either. But they worked hard, valued education and built successful businesses. Blacks have been given ALL KINDS of opportunities in this country and they consistently squander them. The taxpayers in this country have given the poor black community BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS of dollars and what do we have to show for all of that? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING except increased poverty, increased crime, ever rising rates of illiteracy and one generation after another of blacks growing up dependant on government handouts. And they DO get the same opportunities. THEY ARE GIVEN A FREE PUBLIC EDUCATION. They also get all kinds of financial aid for college that is not available to most middle class families. And once again, how about a little thing called affirmative action? They get preferential treatment ALL THE TIME. What more would you like the rest of us to do? Should I give them my home? My car? My retirement savings? My property taxes are ALREADY completely outrageous because I am forced to pay for the schools in our low income cities here in NJ as well as our own.
So NO, they are NOT entitled to ANY more compensation. They've already gotten way more than they should have.
And you have got to be kidding me. That is such a completely ridiculous bald-faced lie - "Obama runs from any type of racial issue, blah blah blah." Please, don't make me laugh. In exactly 60 seconds I could find you more than a few videos on youtube where he does ANYTHING but "run from racial issues". And Obama is the biggest racist of them all and is personally responsible for setting race relations in this country back several generations. He has been ALL ABOUT racial division, actively encouraging racial anger and telling blacks that they are entitled to take what other people earned. This is the man who spent 20 YEARS in the pews of Reverend Wright who has made no secret whatsover of his hatred of whites and of this country in general and his "sermons" were regular rants on those topics. NO ONE spends 20 years listening to that kind of BS unless they are in total agreement with it.
So does this mean the 5 people who where murdered by the Syrian Mortar attack can sue? Or every person killed for the past 10.000 years by someone else? There are millions of cases. How about the people responsible for these actions and not some one else 70 years later. The Indigenous people of Australia should have a big suit too. Hell the whole World should be sued. I guess anyone can sue. Trouble part is collecting.
And what about Germany? If you can sue England for beating 10 people to death I'm pretty sure you can sue for firebombing 4 million.
Well, we know the white people would be broke. Imagine if the Christians had to pay for killing all those hundreds of millions of Muslims during all those Crusades.
Oh, Christians don't talk about the Crusades now do they?
Any TRUE Christian denounces the Crusades. What atheistic bubble do you live in???
Do you have any criticism of the MODERN Slavery Trade?? OH, NOT in your LIBERAL BUBBLE??
I could be wrong, but if I believe Muslim's killed many more of other faiths than Christians ever did, not that any of it in the name of religion was right.
Muslims rampaged European Land for centuries. The crusade was reactionary.
Not hundreds of millions of muslims. Considering that there were barely a 500 million people on Earth at the time. Your a retard.
Muslims have been invading and trying to get their hands on Europe for centuries and at one point controlled most of Spain. Now, in less than 100 years they control Turkey, Bosnia?, and have mass immigrated to Europe. Are you seriously trying to say Muslims are innocent and haven't killed So many people of other religions for centuries?
What a weird/rediculous world it has become! By the same logic, all African American could sue US government for all the racial discrimination they endured over the years; All Irish and Chinese Americans could sue US government for labor prosecution; Hell, maybe all developing/poor countries could sue all the developed countries for unfairly taking their natural resources; Asian countries, vietnam, Korea, China, could sue Japan for all the horrors and massacres Japanese government committed. The list goes on.........
This isn't case about "racial discrimination", it's about cutting someone's balls off in order to torture them.
Once again the UK has the courage to address its history of torture, while the US is far too cowardly to do the same.
Hardly. The UK is being dragged into this if you read the article.
Hey 'Nothin New' (No Duh there)
Racist Anyone??? Your Hipocrisy is appalling, and self-indicting. Herman Cain, Condoleeza Rice, Alan Keyes, and other Black Americans are GREAT examples of EXCELLENT persons with NO regard to the color of their skin. You, however, refer to 'Black FOLKS' what a pathetic indictment of your RACISM.
Where is your condemnation of modern Slavery in the World??? A$$HOLE.. Most of Modern Slavery is by BLACKS in the name of the MUSLIM 'faith'. Get educated you RACIST A$$HOLE
My Father was a poor white laborer. He and my uncles worked very hard their entire lives. 1 of their brothers died in WWII. They were never Racist, and we were all raised to believe that God created ALL people in his image.
NOW, I am supposed to pay for some pathetic mis-guided White Liberal A-wipes guilt trip? $uck-my A$$. I NEVER Owned Slaves. I have worked my A$$ off my entire life.
Pathetic liberal white Americans, will sell the US out in a heartbeat, with their
pitiful mindset to undermine true reason. BUTT, Stupid-A$$ Liberal White MORONS
have typically undermined the positions they should safeguard. Give your
children over to Muslims, Satanists, Welfare-sucking generations with NO
intention to actually be productive...and on and on....Stupid Liberal White
Americans are MORE THAN WILLING to sell their children out for their mis-guided
MORON mis-interpretations of reality
Nicely done, sir.
Hey..Angel ..(of what?)
Any TRUE Christian denounces the Crusades. What atheistic bubble do you live in???
Do you have any criticism of the MODERN Slavery Trade?? OH, NOT in your LIBERAL BUBBLE??
Any TRUE christian also doesn't believe in war, the death penalty, or the vast accumulation of personal wealth. Do you?
Hello India, China, Afghanistan, Africa,...........
Pay back time for all the misdeeds, greed, killings, cookery of the Monarchy. They gave it a humanized name - colonialism. Everyone rise to the occasion.
The New Democrat Party---Get with the Socialist, Communist Party Line. Is that Who YOU WANT TO BE, AMERICA???
No Karl Marx, No Saul Alensky, No Bill Ayers, No Jeremiah Wright, No Muslim Brotherhood, No
Anti-American Dreams FROM his Father….NOBAMA
This is just another method for paying KENYANS to do the DIRTY WORK in SOMALIA and elsewhere
"The Indigenous people of Australia should have a big suit too." --- Not to forget the INDIGENOUS people of the AMERICAS or NEW ZEALAND or WEST INDIES, etc.
OK, Then I wan't to sue Germany and Japan for the loss of family members that died in both wars! Now this doesn't sound silly to anyone? Give me a break! This is just another runaway court system holding goverments accountable for things that happened way to long ago!
The Kenyans didn't vote the British in as far as anyone whom read this article, sane that is, understands this article. Travis you can leave any time now. By the way the USSR hasn't existed since 1990. Maybe when you get an education you'll be good enough to return to New England.
they started it and now they want money??? now the white people who were victims of them should counter sue...it never should have happened but it did...a different time...let the past die...this will make more people on both sides even more bitter.
ahhh all the tolerant compassionaye lefties on this site. take a bath get a haircut and get a job. i relize the last item on this list is the hardest to fulfill as you are not employable.
Hopefull this will be a closure to a horrific past of the UK. While the Mau Mau uprisers were no angels themselves, the UK is responsible for the victims of their inhuman methods. Unfortunately the officers and enlisted of the UK or more likely than not dead by this time and could not be tried as waar criminals, the UK government is responsible for their actions. I an only offer my sympathies for the victims of the crimes of our fathers
What about the victims of the Mau Mau?
Hats off to the UK judge!! With his balls intact this judge has ruled for Responsibility and Accountability. It's the harder path, but it reinforces truth and right values sadly lacking in a self-centered narrow minded world. As a youngster, if you weren't taught to own your actions and clean up your messes this may be difficult to understand. Failing to do so is cowardly and eventually there is no more room under the rug for your dirt. This isn't socialism, it's a lesson I hope every child in the world learns from responsible parents. Of course the better lesson is; don't make the mess in the first place. Oh yeah, and calling something pathetic 50,000 times doesn't make it pathetic, it makes you repetitive.
not one penny for these scam artists!
Interesting. Does that potentially open the way for all those illegally tortured and imprisoned by the US in recent years to sue the US government - it seems that is perhaps the only way accountability can be imposed on governments for their actions. Anyway, good for the British legal system which seems to be something to admire.
Obama is calling the "Johnny Cochran Firm" right now. He's going to need a settlement after the election.
"Michelle,..have you seen my birth certificate?,..the real one,..?"
For all of you who have never lived in Africa, you only know what the biased media feeds you. The Mau Mau were murdering butchers... the Brits gave as good as they got. If the UK has to pay for damages, how about Kenya paying for all of the innocents that the Mau Mau slaughtered?
My wife was arrested and tortured by Mugabe's thugs in Zimbabwe because she married a white doctor. It took me awhile, but I hired some free-lancers to break her out and we headed south to South Africa and then back to the U.S. The blacks under Mugabe destroyed what was Southern Rhodesia.... rampant inflation, worthless money, devastated farms, massive unemployment.... typical.... oh, I forgot....... it is all the white man's fault... give me a break.... that may fly with the left-wingers, but it will not fly with my wife, who lived the horror.
TheDoctor72: Rhodesia was truly a beautiful and prosperous country. Today it is destroyed, infrastructure is gone and crime is rampant.
Jimmy Carter went out of his way to help destroy Rhodesia, and the US media helped with the propaganda detail. The liberals just love "Jimmy" too.
The BRITS did what had to be done.. There is no "being nice" to terrorists... and...if some were not terrorists..they should NOT have been hanging out with them... Don't even go there...They WERE terrorists..or the BRITS would not have been after them. This is all a shame...that they missed OBONGOS family..sure would have saved us a lot of grief...We all know he was born there... They could have saved our Country... Shame for sure....
Hopefully the Iraqi citizens that were tortured will be able to sue America, no chance of that happening because American is above the international laws and were rewrote the definition of torture to suit our needs. The new definition of torture is now enhanced interrogation it has nothing to do with torture, you can check this fact with Bush's Attorney. We never follow international laws unless they benefit America. The US government used genocide to rid the US of the native Americans, when other countries do the same, we scream human rights. Where were human rights when we were slaughtering the Native Americans. We probably have a new definition for slaughter now, like get rid of God bless democracy it has no pattern it is what ever the politicans in charge at the moment decide what democracy is for that day, week, month or year. All I know is democracy is for sale in the US, yes it has a price ask anyone we see it in our court every day. Guilt and innocents is a figure on a check book, a political donation. a free family vacation, any thing to do with money is how justice is administrated in this democracy. How much justice can you afford today.
Gary: You should go and save all the 'noble savages' yourself. Pack up the wife or partner, head over there and explain that you are there to help them. I'm sure it will all work out OK. Oikophobes and ethnomasochists are welcomed,..until your money runs out.
Bon voyage!