An Australian state yesterday approved millions of dollars in compensation for members of the "stolen generation" of Aborigines, weeks after the federal government rejected similar demands.
Tasmanian state Premier Paul Lennon said that a total of 106 claimants would share in up to A$5 million (US$4.38 million) set aside for indigenous children forcibly taken from their parents.
"No amount of money can make up for Aboriginal children being removed from their families simply on the basis of race," Lennon told reporters in Hobart, capital of the island state south of the Australian mainland.
"But the payments I announce today to those whose lives have been so deeply affected by this flawed policy of separation are a symbolic recognition of the pain, suffering and dislocation they have experienced," he said.
Thousands of Aboriginal children were taken from their parents as children over four decades up to the 1970s and put into institutions or foster care with white families as part of an attempt to force assimilation.
Two weeks ago the Australian government rejected Aboriginal demands for hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for victims of what became known as the "stolen generation."
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has pledged to apologize for the widely-criticized policy, something his predecessor John Howard refused to do before being ousted in November polls.
But Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin ruled out backing the apology with the establishment of a fund of A$1 billion (US$870 million), as demanded by some Aboriginal leaders.
"What we will be doing is putting the funding into health and education services, and providing additional support for services needed for counseling, to enable people to find their relatives," she told national radio.
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