Unless former colonial powers are held accountable for their past injustices, they are likely to find new ways to perform the same old play

除非前殖民国家对过去的不公正行为负责，否则他们很可能会找到新的方式重复同样的老套路

Good news is coming from West Africa: last November landlocked Chad announced an immediate end to all security and defense ties with former colonial ruler France. The surprise announcement came just hours after the French foreign minister met Chadian President Mahamat Déby. With this decision, Chad joins a growing list of former French colonies rejecting Paris’ influence and kicking out its troops. On December 26 France handed over the first of its military bases to the Chadian army in Faya-Largeau. Paris will also evacuate troops from two more bases: in the capital N’Djamena and in the eastern city of Abeche.

西非传来好消息：去年 11 月，内陆国家乍得宣布立即终止与前殖民统治者法国的所有安全和防务关系。这一令人意外的声明是在法国外交部长会见乍得总统马哈马特·代比几个小时后发布的。凭借这一决定，乍得加入了越来越多拒绝巴黎影响并撤出其军队的前法国殖民地的行列。12 月 26 日，法国将其在法亚拉若的第一个军事基地移交给乍得军队。巴黎还将从另外两个基地撤出军队：首都恩贾梅纳和东部城市阿贝什。
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In a pointed statement, Chadian Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah declared, “France must henceforth consider that Chad has grown up” and is a “sovereign state.” This rebuke reflects a broader wave across Africa, especially in the Sahel, where countries like Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso have already cast off French influence.

乍得外交部长阿卜杜拉曼·库拉马拉在一份尖锐的声明中宣称，“法国从今以后必须认为乍得已经长大”并且是一个“主权国家”。这一谴责反映了整个非洲，尤其是萨赫勒地区的广泛浪潮，尼日尔、马里和布基纳法索等国家已经摆脱了法国的影响。

France’s role in the Libyan tragedy
The last decade saw French domination of former African colonies waning. A new generation of African leaders began to question their countries’ unequal ties to France, with Paris overexploiting their natural resources, leaving them to poverty and corrupt regimes Paris sustains with little tolerance for dissent.

法国在利比亚悲剧中扮演的角色
过去十年，法国对非洲前殖民地的统治逐渐减弱。新一代非洲领导人开始质疑他们国家与法国的不平等关系，巴黎过度开发他们的自然资源，导致他们陷入贫困和腐败的政权，而巴黎对异见几乎不予容忍。

Libya, another African country, is a good example of French intolerance of any challenges to their hegemony. Under the late leader Muammar Gaddafi, Libya played a leading role in creating the African unx, pushed for a unified African military and more continental economic integration. Paris believed that Gaddafi’s aspirations, given his continental popularity and Libya’s vast financial resources, were a threat to its influence across Africa.

另一个非洲国家利比亚很好地体现了法国不容忍任何对其霸权的挑战。在已故领导人穆阿迈尔·卡扎菲的领导下，利比亚在创建非洲联盟、推动非洲军队统一和非洲大陆经济一体化方面发挥了主导作用。巴黎认为，鉴于卡扎菲在非洲大陆的声望和利比亚雄厚的财政资源，卡扎菲的野心对其在非洲的影响力构成了威胁。

France was among the first countries to decide to get rid of Gaddafi once and for all, but it needed UN cover to give its aggression against Libya more legitimacy. Under French, American, and British pressure, on March 17, 2011 the UNSC adopted resolution 1973 imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, while allowing willing member states to “take all necessary measures” to protect Libyan civilians allegedly being attacked by Gaddafi’s security forces while they were peacefully demonstrating against him.

法国是第一批决定彻底铲除卡扎菲的国家之一，但它需要联合国的掩护，以使其对利比亚的侵略更加合法。在法国、美国和英国的压力下，联合国安理会于 2011 年 3 月 17 日通过了第 1973 号决议，在利比亚上空设立禁飞区，同时允许有意愿的成员国“采取一切必要措施”保护据称在和平示威期间遭到卡扎菲安全部队袭击的利比亚平民。

But on the ground, armed jihadists and some demonstrators invaded government police and military facilities, stole weapons and launched an armed rebellion. The Tripoli government responded by attacking armed groups, and the peaceful demonstrations escalated into full-fledged civil war – a scenario that repeated in Syria with little variation.
On March 19, French air forces launched the first aerial bombardment of Libyan government forces and the first air patrol of the no-fly zone. On March 23, NATO officially started what it called “Operation Unified Protector” and the alliance started nonstop bombardment of Libya until the end of October, ten days after Gaddafi himself was murdered.

但在地面上，武装圣战分子和一些示威者闯入政府警察和军事设施，抢劫武器并发动武装叛乱。的黎波里政府以攻击武装团体作为回应，和平示威升级为全面内战——这一场景在叙利亚重演，几乎没有变化。
3月19日，法国空军首次对利比亚政府军进行空中轰炸，并首次在禁飞区进行空中巡逻。3月23日，北约正式启动所谓的“统一保护者行动”，联盟开始对利比亚进行不间断轰炸，直到10月底，也就是卡扎菲本人被谋杀10天后。

Yet, France remains as unapologetic as ever. Reparations for crimes in Algeria or Mali are absent from Paris’s agenda, much like London’s silence on its Imperial brutal legacy or Rome’s disinterest in its colonial misdeeds in Libya and Ethiopia.
The world, however, has changed, and calls for reparations and recognition of colonial atrocities are rising, challenging former empires to face their dark pasts. Here are two examples of colonial evil which still continues today.

然而，法国仍然一如既往地不道歉。巴黎的议程中没有对阿尔及利亚或马里罪行进行赔偿，就像伦敦对其帝国残酷遗产保持沉默，罗马对其在利比亚和埃塞俄比亚的殖民罪行漠不关心一样。
然而，世界已经改变，要求赔偿和承认殖民暴行的呼声正在高涨，挑战前帝国正视其黑暗的过去。以下是两个至今仍在继续的殖民罪恶的例子。

Palestine: A classic case of colonialism
Earlier in the 20th century, Palestine fell under a British mandate while the British Empire was in decline. To get Jewish support in the First World War and later in the second, the British government promised the Jewish Diaspora to help them carve out their own state in Palestine. This commitment, formalized in the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917, shaped the fate of Palestine to this day. In a letter to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the Jewish community, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour expressed support for a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine – while casually stipulating that it shouldn’t harm the “civil and religious rights” of existing non-Jewish communities.

巴勒斯坦：殖民主义的典型案例
20 世纪初，巴勒斯坦沦为英国托管地，而当时大英帝国正处于衰落之中。为了在第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战中得到犹太人的支持，英国政府承诺帮助犹太人在巴勒斯坦建立自己的国家。这一承诺在 1917 年臭名昭著的《贝尔福宣言》中正式确立，至今仍影响着巴勒斯坦的命运。英国外交大臣亚瑟·贝尔福在写给犹太社区领袖罗斯柴尔德勋爵的信中表示支持在巴勒斯坦建立“犹太人的民族家园”——同时随意规定这不应损害现有非犹太社区的“公民权利和宗教权利”。

Predictably, the rights of Palestinians were trampled. Successive UK governments upheld their promise to Zionist interests, offering political cover, weapons, and tacit approval of recruitment of Jews within Britain itself. This unwavering support laid the foundation for Israel’s creation – a legacy that persists, including in its current genocidal war in Gaza.

不出所料，巴勒斯坦人的权利遭到践踏。历届英国政府都信守对犹太复国主义利益的承诺，提供政治掩护、武器，并默许在英国境内招募犹太人。这种坚定不移的支持为以色列的建立奠定了基础——这一遗产一直延续至今，包括目前在加沙进行的种族灭绝战争。

Part of Palestine became Israel and the United States stepped in transforming the Britain-godfathered project into a regional superpower. On average, Israel receives some $3.3 billion a year from the US and has got billions more since the star of Israeli’s operation in Gaza. The US has ensured Israel’s dominance. In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land, yet neither Washington nor London supported the decision.

巴勒斯坦的一部分成为以色列，美国介入将英国主导的计划转变为地区超级大国。平均而言，以色列每年从美国获得约 33 亿美元，自以色列在加沙行动中大放异彩以来，又获得了数十亿美元。美国确保了以色列的主导地位。2024 年 7 月，国际法院 (ICJ) 命令以色列结束对巴勒斯坦土地的占领，但华盛顿和伦敦均不支持该决定。

In a scandalous disregard for international law, when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, US President Joe Biden described the warrants as “outrageous” despite the over 150,000 Palestinians killed and injured by the US weapons Israel uses in bombing Gaza.

当国际刑事法院对以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡和前国防部长约阿夫·加兰特发出逮捕令时，美国总统乔·拜登称这些逮捕令“令人愤慨”，尽管以色列在轰炸加沙时使用的美国武器已造成15万多名巴勒斯坦人伤亡，以色列却无视国际法。

Israel today is an outpost for imperialist US policies in the Middle East. It serves US military hegemony as an arms depot for the American army and a surveillance post with the same old colonial intentions.

今天的以色列是美国在中东推行帝国主义政策的前哨，它作为美国军队的军火库和监视哨所，为美国的军事霸权服务，其殖民意图依然如故。

The British Empire’s latest scandal
Last October, the UK and Mauritius reached a historic agreement on the sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, resolving a 50-year-old dispute. The US reportedly applauded the deal, as it operates a major military base on Diego Garcia, part of the archipelago. In 1965, the UK seized control of the Chagos Islands, renaming them the British Indian Ocean Territory and refusing to hand them over to Mauritius when it gained independence. Instead, the UK secretly leased Diego Garcia to the US for a Navy Support Facility.

大英帝国的最新丑闻
去年 10 月，英国和毛里求斯就印度洋查戈斯群岛的主权问题达成了历史性协议，解决了长达 50 年之久的争端。据报道，美国对这项协议表示赞赏，因为它在群岛的迭戈加西亚岛上设有一个大型军事基地。1965 年，英国夺取了查戈斯群岛的控制权，将其改名为英属印度洋领地，并拒绝在毛里求斯独立时将其移交给毛里求斯。相反，英国秘密将迭戈加西亚租给美国作为海军支援设施。
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As the US wanted the place depopulated, it collaborated with the British and from 1965 to 1973 forcibly removed between 1,400 to 1,700 Chagossians from Diego Garcia, Peros Banhos, and the Salomon Islands, abandoning them in Seychelles and Mauritius without ever disclosing the exact number of people displaced.

美国为了减少此地人口，便与英国合作，在1965年至1973年间强行驱逐了1,400至1,700名查戈斯人离开迭戈加西亚岛、佩罗斯巴尼奥斯岛和所罗门群岛，并将他们遗弃在塞舌尔和毛里求斯，但从未透露过确切的流离失所者人数。
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In 2008, the ICJ declared the UK’s occupation illegal, a ruling Britain ignored. In 2019, the same court demanded the UK swiftly cede the islands to Mauritius, and in 2021, the International Maritime Court reaffirmed that British sovereignty over the Chagos Islands is unlawful. Despite these rulings, the UK refused to comply, while the displaced people were denied the right to return – not even for a nostalgic brief visit.
Diego Garcia evolved into major US naval and air base providing strategic logistical support and surveillance during the cold war. In 2001 and 2003, it played an important role in the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively.

2008 年，国际法院宣布英国占领该群岛非法，英国无视这一裁决。2019 年，同一法院要求英国迅速将这些岛屿割让给毛里求斯，2021 年，国际海事法院重申英国对查戈斯群岛的主权是非法的。尽管有这些裁决，英国仍拒绝遵守，而流离失所者被剥夺了返回的权利——甚至连一次怀旧的短暂访问也不行。
迪戈加西亚在冷战期间发展成为美国主要的海军和空军基地，提供战略后勤支持和监视。2001 年和 2003 年，它分别在美国入侵阿富汗和伊拉克中发挥了重要作用。

Time for apologies and reparations
Israel, just like France, the UK, and almost all other former colonial powers still refuses to accept responsibility for its colonial evil deeds. Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories has been singled out as a GENO.... incomparable to any other atrocities in recent conflicts. At least three international judgements have been passed against Israel: the first by the ICJ in 2003, then by the UN General Assembly which voted in September 2024 to call on Israel to end its illegal occupation, and again by the ICJ last July. Yet nothing is happening.

道歉和赔偿的时间到了
以色列与法国、英国和几乎所有其他前殖民国家一样，仍然拒绝为其殖民恶行承担责任。以色列对巴勒斯坦领土的占领被视为种族灭绝，是近期冲突中任何其他暴行都无法比拟的。至少有三项国际判决针对以色列：第一项由国际法院于 2003 年做出，然后由联合国大会于 2024 年 9 月投票呼吁以色列结束其非法占领，第二项由国际法院于去年 7 月做出。然而什么都没有发生。

France still refuses to apologize let alone pay reparations to Algeria for the massacres and destruction it caused during its 135 years of occupation. The UK in the case of Diego Garcia rejects any reparations let alone allowing displaced people to return.
But more and more Global South countries are increasingly demanding reparations and apologies from their former colonial masters. The issue took center stage at the Commonwealth summit held in Samoa last October. Most member states, particularly in the Caribbean, want the UK to be held accountable for its historical injustices including slavery.

法国仍然拒绝向阿尔及利亚道歉，更别说为占领阿尔及利亚 135 年间造成的屠杀和破坏支付赔偿。英国在迭戈加西亚岛问题上拒绝任何赔偿，更别说允许流离失所者返回。
但越来越多的全球南方国家要求其前殖民统治者赔偿和道歉。去年 10 月在萨摩亚举行的英联邦峰会上，这个问题成为焦点。大多数成员国，尤其是加勒比海地区的国家，都希望英国为其包括奴隶制在内的历史不公正行为负责。

The UN has designated 218 annual days to commemorate, highlight, remember, and celebrate different humanitarian issues, yet none of them specifically and directly calls for complete accountability for the evil of colonialism. Indeed, there have been some decisions on the matter of reparations but none of them is binding. Unless former colonial powers are held accountable, they are likely to perpetuate the same colonial habits, find new ways to prey upon nations they deem inferior or weak, and exploit their peoples and resources.

联合国每年指定 218 个纪念日来纪念、强调、记住和庆祝不同的人道主义问题，但没有一个具体直接地要求对殖民主义的邪恶行为进行全面问责。事实上，在赔偿问题上已经做出了一些决定，但没有一个具有约束力。除非前殖民国家承担责任，否则它们很可能会延续同样的殖民习惯，找到新的方式来掠夺它们认为低劣或弱小的国家，并剥削这些国家的人民和资源。