October 9, 1999
Web posted at: 3:54 p.m. EDT (1954 GMT)

BRANDFORT, South Africa (CNN) -- South Africa launched a three-year commemoration Saturday of the 1899 Anglo-Boer War in ceremonies that underscored the sweeping national changes that have taken place in the last decade.

The 1899-1902 war broke out on October 11, 1899, when the white Boer farmers and thousands of their black workers resisted British attempts to secure control of South Africa's gold mines.

South African President Thabo Mbeki paid tribute to the courage of the Boers, who unsuccessfully fought to escape rule by Britain 100 years ago. Britain's Duke of Kent, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth, acknowledged Britain's "shameful" role and "dreadful abuses."

VIDEO Johannesburg Bureau Chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports that for the first time, black and other nonwhite victims of British concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War are being remembered as South Africa commemorates the conflict's 100th anniversary Windows Media 28K 80K

About 70,000 people died in the war -- more than half in British concentration camps. Most of the victims were blacks. Women and children of all racial groups perished.

Mbeki and the Duke of Kent together visited British, Boer and black cemeteries around the central city of Bloemfontein, where they addressed a largely black crowd at the site of a British concentration camp for blacks.

"No one who has read the history of the time could fail to be moved and shocked by the shameful neglect, particularly of women and children, that occurred in those places," the Duke said.

With hindsight, the Duke said, "the South African or Anglo-Boer war looks more pointless than most."

Long known as the "white man's war," the role and suffering of blacks during the conflict is only now getting attention.

"Never again, the dreadful abuses caused by the war," the Duke told the crowd. "Never again the disregard of the rights of black South Africans that took place during the war."

The Duke of Kent's statement is the strongest yet issued by Britain on the war. Prime Minister Tony Blair resisted pressure during his visit to South African in January to apologize for the conflict.

Speaking afterward, Mbeki praised the Boer farmers for standing up to the British. "We pay homage to the courageous Boer men and women ... they had the courage to take on a Goliath in defense of their freedom. We pay homage to them because, in struggle, they asserted the right of all colonized people to independence."

Many historians say the brutalities of the Boer war laid the foundation of Afrikaner nationalism, which led to the apartheid system that was in place in South Africa until 1994. The Boers were white descendants of Dutch and other European settlers who institutionalized racial segregation.

In 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected president in the country's first all-race election. He was succeeded by Mbeki this year.

"This war, ghastly as it was, is indeed a South African heritage," said Bridget Mabandla, deputy minister of arts, culture, science and technology. "It does form part of our history, it has defined the route we have taken since the war was declared."

Johannesburg Bureau Chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault Reuters contributed to this report.