By Bert Wilkinson\Caribbean Life
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
As he handed over the chairpersonship of the 15-nation Caribbean Community to Mia Mottley of Barbados, Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told the European Union that it could not avoid making reparation payments for the crimes linked to the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Making his remarks as immediate past bloc chair, Mitchell was blunt in his assessment of the situation, telling the audience at last week’s summit in Barbados that the issue remains a top priority on the regional agenda. In the audience, of course, was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who was among the special invitees to the three-day summit. Like the others, she sat and took in Mitchell’s remarks as he formally ended his six months as chairman of the grouping.
“The issue of Reparations for the transatlantic slavery and the enslavement of African peoples and Black bodies, as my comrade Ralph Gonsalves (of St. Vincent) likes to say, is an issue that we will take up with you, and we are doing so in hands of partnership, and we are doing so in the cause of humanity because as long as we do not openly and explicitly reject the idea that one human being can own another human being, we run the risk that idea may somehow take root again,” he said.
He argued that the region has a responsibility to its people to fight for reparations and its designation as crimes against humanity as he demanded a formal apology, compensation, and a pledge that “such atrocities must never occur again.” READ MORE…
