by EARL BOUSQUET
Will the Caribbean Go the Full Distance for Reparations From Europe?
“The EU states involved — especially Britain, France and Spain — have made it crystal clear they don‘t want to play ball on the issue.”
Fifteen Caribbean Community, Caricom, governments are being strongly advised to get ready for the long haul in their continuing quest for Reparations for Slavery and Native Genocide from Britain, France, Spain and other European Union, EU, member-states.
The governments of mainly former British and French colonies have characterized the 400 years of Slavery and Native Genocide that took the lives of 12 million Africans and 15 million indigenous people in the captured and colonized West Indies and Antilles as “The Greatest Crime Against Humanity in the History of Humankind.”
Collective Demands
They are collectively demanding through National Reparations Committees, NRCs, upwards of 150 billion pounds (sterling) worth of reparations — from Britain alone — for the 640,000 enslaved persons in the Caribbean at Emancipation.
Led by the Caricom Reparations Commission, CRC, each nation will make its individual claim – in the case of Saint Lucia against both Britain and France, which exchanged the island between then 14 times.
The Long Haul
But is Caricom ready and willing to go the distance with a Europe still very united in its denial of responsibility for crime, far less doing the time?
The Caricom governments are hoping to engage the EU and culprit member-states to discuss and negotiate possibilities and mechanisms for compensation and repair of their historic crimes in a region they raped and plundered for centuries before turning their backs on the victim peoples and countries.
The EU states involved — especially Britain, France and Spain — have made it crystal clear they don‘t want to play ball on the issue.
The Caricom leaders have not publicly disclosed the current state of play in light of the refusal of the Europeans to even listen.
But what are the Caribbean governments really asking for?
Ten Demands
Back in 2013 when the Caricom leaders formally agreed to pursue reparations in each member-state, they also published a “10 point Action Plan” called “The Caribbean Reparatory justice Program.”
These 10 demands have been described as everything from “reasonable” to “very unreasonable.”
The Caribbean governments want:
1. A full and formal, explicit statement of apology
2. A Repatriation program to facilitate African descendants who want to return to and reintegrate in the continent from which over 10 million of their ancestors were stolen from their homes and forcibly transported to the Caribbean as enslaved chattel property
3. A Development Plan for Indigenous People, who numbered 3,000,000 in 1700 and were reduced to 30,000 only three centuries later in 2000 and who remain landless and poor, the most marginalized people in the region
4. Establishment of cultural institutions, such as museums and libraries, to memorialize the Europeans’ crimes against humanity in this part of the world
5. Europe accepting responsibility for and assisting in addressing the impacts of the region having the highest incidence of chronic diseases Hypertension and Diabetes Type Two in the world, which pandemics have been directly connected to the nutritional experience, physical and emotional brutality and overall stress profiles associated with slavery, genocide and apartheid.
“These 10 demands have been described as everything from “reasonable” to “very unreasonable.”
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