Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday that the former colonial masters of Africa and South America should apologise for "the greatest genocide in history".

"We demand that the genocides which occurred in Africa, in South America, be condemned," Chavez told a joint press conference with his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki in Pretoria.

"Africa has suffered the greatest genocide in history," Chavez said, in a reference to colonisation by European powers and to slavery.

"In this we are brothers because we have known such a genocide in South America," he said, citing native Maya, Aztec and Inca civilizations which disappeared under Spain's Conquistadors.

"The countries that led that genocide have not asked for forgiveness yet and some of them are even upset because we remember this."

"But we have the obligation to remember this. It is our duty to explain this, to tell current and future generations what happened," added the former army paratrooper, who since coming to power in 1998 has provoked the ire of the United States and Britain over his outspoken attacks.

Source: SBS

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