King Charles says he is determined to build a better future after shame of slavery

By Isabel Infantes

ST JOHN'S, Antigua and Barbuda, Nov 3 (Reuters) - King Charles told Commonwealth leaders on Tuesday his greater understanding of the horrors of slavery had made him more determined to address past wrongs, but they needed to look to the future and ensure "evil need not have the last word".

The run up to the gathering of the 56 member states, which comprise mostly former British colonies, has been dominated by talk of whether Britain should apologise or pay reparations for the role it played in the transatlantic slave trade.

While neither the king nor Britain has given such an apology or discussed paying reparations, both Charles and new Prime Minister Andy Burnham have talked of using the Commonwealth to address modern needs, by providing support on climate change, education and health.

"We cannot change the actions of those who came before us," Charles, the head of the Commonwealth, told leaders in his opening speech in Antigua and Barbuda. "We can, however, learn from the past.

"The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons still casts a shadow over these islands and other members of our Commonwealth. As I have said before, that shameful chapter of history is one that fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow."

KING SAYS HISTORY CAN TEACH US

Charles said the more he had read, listened and learnt about slavery, the more committed he had become to finding ways for the different countries to build modern partnerships that can address the wrongs of the past.

"Our history inspires us, can appall us, yet it can always teach us," he said.

He listed access to education, jobs and opportunities, as well as intra-Commonwealth trade and climate change resilience as ways of helping those "who struggle against hardship and disadvantage".

In line with that, Burnham said he would discuss debt resets for smaller Commonwealth nations and has announced a £40 million ($54 million) investment into critical infrastructure in the Caribbean over the next three years.

Burnham has also gone further than his predecessors by saying he was open to Britain apologising for slavery and officials were holding talks with national leaders at the summit to discuss what form that could take.

In recent decades, calls have grown for powers such as Portugal, Britain and France to consider paying reparations over the transatlantic slave trade, when around 12.5 million Africans were abducted and sold into slavery from the 15th to the 19th century.

Britain transported an estimated 3.2 million people across the Atlantic, making it one of the biggest slave-trading nations, according to the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database.

CARICOM, the Caribbean Community group of 23 member and associate member states such as the Bahamas, Barbados and Jamaica, had been pushing for reparations to be on the Commonwealth meeting's agenda.

(Reporting by Isabel Infantes; writing by Kate Holton; Additional reporting by Yoruk Bahceli; Editing by Nia Williams, Michael Holden and Alison Williams)