The new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Ruud will present the first formal apology to “the stolen generations” for the policies led in the past by the state of Australia, according to which Aboriginal children were taken from their families.

The apology will be made on Feb. 13 and represents the first topic on the agenda in the meeting with the new Parliament, declared Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin. She added that the apology “does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people,” and it is done on behalf of the Australian Government.

Almost 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken away from their parents between 1910 and 1970, under the federal and state laws of Australia, as a measure taken to provide a better life for the Aboriginal children. The policy labeled this measure as a humanitarian action, for saving children’s lives. Critics counter that it was an attempt to assimilate the Aborigine race into white society and destroy its customs.

In 1997, the “Bringing Them Home” report was published, stating that the children removed from their Aboriginal families suffered psychological damages and traumas caused by the separation and that a compensation was required from the Australian state. The government of the Prime Minister Kevin Ruud decided against the compensations.

However, the former Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who lost the elections in November 2007, had refused to express his apologies to the Aboriginal families. Howard said in an interview with a local radio station: “There are millions of Australians who will never entertain an apology because they don’t believe that there is anything to apologize for.”

The Aboriginal community welcomes the apology. The Aborigines represent two percent of the Australian population. Ruud stated that the government has in view the development of programs for improving Aborigines life standards. At the moment high rates of unemployment and crime are recorded within the Aborigine community.