King Charles III stopped short of addressing growing demands for an apology and reparations for Britain's centuries-long role in the slave trade.

King Charles III, speaking at the Commonwealth summit, stopped short of addressing growing demands for an apology and reparations for Britain’s centuries-long role in the slave trade. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI UPI

Nov. 3 (UPI) -- King Charles III on Tuesday called the transatlantic slave trade a "shameful chapter of history" but stopped short of addressing demands for an apology and reparations for Britain's centuries-long, leading role in it.

Charles told leaders at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua and Barbuda that "we cannot change the actions of those who came before us."

"We can, however, learn from the past," he said. "The transatlantic trade in enslaved persons still casts a shadow over these islands and other members of our Commonwealth.

"That shameful chapter of history is one that fills my heart with horror and my soul with the most profound personal sorrow."

Every two years, the Commonwealth summit brings together 56 states, most of them former British colonies.

Charles did not address growing calls for reparations for the horrors of centuries of slavery, during which British sailors trafficked more than 3 million people from Africa.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he is open to British leaders apologizing for slavery but not reparations.

"I've been very clear that we do not support reparations," the prime minister said Tuesday. "But it's not the case that we don't support countries in the Commonwealth around development, and helping them with debt issues that they've got, green finance."

Dorbrene O'Marde, chair of the Antigua and Barbuda Reparations Support Commission, said "genuine moral consciousness demands apologies."

"One whose heart is filled with horror and whose soul bears the most profound personal sorrow must surely be moved beyond words -- beyond repeated emotional expression without acceptance of responsibility," O'Marde told The Guardian. "Genuine moral consciousness demands apologies -- the acknowledgment of wrong, the acceptance of responsibility and the commitment to pursue reparations.

"Unfortunately King Charles III does nothing of the sort. He has again failed the people who recognize him as king."