Queen Lauds Strong Ties to S. Africa

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who Wednesday came close to apologizing for British concentration camps during the Boer War, used the occasion to stress her nation’s strong links with South Africa.

“No one who reads of the distressing conditions in the detention camps which held both white and black detainees could fail to be moved even today, 100 years later,” she told a banquet at the end of the first day of her second state visit.

“It is important not to forget even painful events in our shared history,” she told an array of guests including President Thabo Mbeki and former President Nelson Mandela.

“But it is better still to find encouragement in the close ties which bind our two countries together,” she added.

Mbeki, who hosted the banquet of smoked salmon, fat lamb and black forest gateau washed down with South African wines, echoed the queen’s conciliatory tone.

“Long divided by racism, we now have the opportunity and possibility to unite and together say never again should our country fall victim to war,” he said.

“We will continuously strive further to strengthen our close and excellent relations with your government and the people of the United Kingdom,” Mbeki added.

Nearly 30,000 people died in British concentration camps during the Boer War, which started in October 1899 and lasted for nearly three years.

Afrikaners and Africans--the latter played a large role on both sides of the conflict but were historically overlooked--are anxious that Britain make a formal apology for the war.

The queen arrived late Tuesday from a state visit to Ghana accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. They were officially welcomed Wednesday by Mbeki at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, the administrative capital.

After lunch with Mbeki and his wife, the queen met privately with Mandela, with whom she has developed a close relationship since her first post-apartheid state visit in 1995.

Mandela and the queen met nine young girls who had won provincial essay competitions on what they would do if they were queen for a day. Reflecting on the crime wave sweeping the country, national winner Ntsako Mlambo, 16, wrote that all men who raped a woman under 21 on the day she was queen should be killed.

“That would make almost any child enjoy the day because they would be safe from being raped,” she wrote.

The queen congratulated her on her essay and winning the prize, which includes an all-expense-paid trip to Britain.

Before leaving for the Indian Ocean port of Durban this afternoon to officiate at the opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, the queen will visit a school and cricket ground in the black township of Alexandra, outside Johannesburg.

“I am certain that the heads of government will take . . . decisions that will make the Commonwealth even more responsive to the challenges that face all humanity,” Mbeki told the banquet.

The queen and her entourage are to make a brief official visit to neighboring Mozambique on Monday, the first by a British monarch to the southern African country.