So Britain has any shame?

The British murdered, maimed, raped, humiliated and subjected the conquered people to all kinds of reprehensible treatment. They stole people’s land, and as seen in Zimbabwe, they condemned the majority black people to arid areas while they snapped 80 percent of all arable land...Does the Queen, in whose name these things were done, have any shame at all? If she does, she must come out and apologise and initiate justice

Tichaona Zindoga

Was anyone really shocked to learn that Britain systematically destroyed documents in its colonies that were about to gain independence as cover up for its activities?

We hear that the so-called “Operation Legacy” was effected in the 1950s and 1960s in at least 23 countries, including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Jamaica, Malaysia and Singapore.

No surprises there. Nor are there any jaw droppers in further revelations by British newspapers on how detailed instructions were issued over methods of destruction: “the waste should be reduced to ash and the ashes broken up”, while any that were being dumped at sea must be “packed in weighted crates and dumped in very deep and current-free water at maximum practicable distance from the coast”.

There were even “destruction certificates” sent to London by colonial officials as proof that they were performing their duties, and letters and memoranda that showed that some were struggling to complete their huge task before the colonies gained their independence.
In Singapore there was even one destruction facility dubbed the “splendid incinerator.” Again, in the criminal, sadistic and evil colonial administration this is no surprise. Here is the real shocker: they were doing this because they feared the papers “might embarrass members of the police, military forces, public servants (such as police agents or informers)”.

Operation Legacy also feared evidence “likely to be interpreted, either reasonably or by malice, as indicating racial prejudice or religious bias on the part of Her Majesty’s government”. So does the empire have any shame at all? It would be useful to state here that embarrassment is not the word; the word is criminality. 

The British murdered, maimed, raped, humiliated and subjected the conquered people to all kinds of reprehensible treatment. They stole people’s land, and as seen in Zimbabwe, they condemned the majority black people to arid areas while they snapped 80 percent of all arable land.

Take the example of Kenya. Freedom fighters were beaten, starved, anally raped and flogged.  They had broken bottles inserted into their anuses. They were humiliated and subjected to forced labour. The world has come to know of the Mau Mau veterans who claimed compensation, and won, in what should be a precedent. One report cites a Kenyan colonial judge, Arthur Cram, appointed to examine the role of British officials in torture and killings, to draw comparisons with infamous Nazi camps.

“They (British colonial officials)not only knew of the shocking floggings that went on in this Kenya Nordhausen, or Mathausen (sic), but must be taken to be the men who were said to have carried them out. From the brutalising of flogging it is only a step to taking life without qualm,” he said in his judgment.

Britain has never apologised for these things, coming close to that by way of saying it “regretted” such criminality, as foreign secretary William Hague did last June. Germany has showed how sorry it is for its Nazi activities by paying them compensation. Britain has not initiated any justice whether restorative or distributive. Is this the same Britain that purports to be the champion of human rights? 

Does the Queen, in whose name these things were done, have any shame at all?
If she does, she must come out and apologise and initiate justice, as the Germans have nobly done.