Reparations issue deserves respect

The Government has been in office for 21 months, which means the Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, Senator Dennis Moses, has become familiar with the committee which falls under his ministry.

The TT NCR was established by Cabinet Minute 363 of February 6, 2014, following the Caricom Heads of Government Meeting in Port of Spain in July 2013, which unanimously supported a proposal tabled by the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, to engage the UK, France and Holland on the issue of reparations to the nations and peoples of the Caribbean for the crimes against humanity of native genocide, the transatlantic slave trade and a racialised system of chattel slavery.

The conference had agreed that each Caricom member State should establish a national committee on reparations.

The original TT NCR was a large one. It comprised myself as chairman, Sir Edwin Carrington (ambassador to Caricom), Khafra Kambon (Emancipation Support Committee), Ricardo Bharat Hernandez (Santa Rosa First Peoples Community), Clyde Noel (All Mansions of Rastafari), One Piankhi (Council of Orisha Elders of TT ), Avril Belfon (national archivist), Theresa Neblett-Skinner (Ministry of Education), Lucia Phillip (Nalis), Dr Heather Cateau (UWI), Dr Sharon Legall (UWI), Dr Anthony Birchwood (UWI), Andy Johnson (GISL), and a representative each of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of the Attorney General, the Ministry of Arts and Multiculturalism, and the UTT .

From the time of our inaugural meeting on April 15, 2014, the TT NCR worked assiduously.

We were pleased that during our tenure then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar included the matter of reparations and reparatory justice in her address to the 69th Session of United Nations General Assembly on September 26, 2014. Persad-Bissessar said: “In a context of limited exports and a narrow resource base the focus is on nurturing and developing our human resources through an emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship.

It is an approach which focuses the full realisation of human right to development and a life of dignity.

“Consistent with this approach, the region continues to advance the global cause of truth, justice, and reconciliation, within the context of reparatory justice for the victims and the descendants of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

“As a region we are determined to engage in reparatory dialogue with the former slave-owning European nations in order to address the living legacies of these crimes.” Unfortunately, the present régime has not shown a similar concern.

On September 8, 2015, following the change in the Government, I wrote to the then Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, regarding the status of the TT NCR.

I had to write several more letters before the new minister met with members of the TT NCR, one year later, on September 12, 2016.

I wrote to the minister again on January 18 to remind him of promises which he made and only on March 21, the current acting permanent secretary wrote that she had noted my previous letters and stated inter alia, “Your expression of interest in contributing in the area of reparations is noted and appreciated.

As the need arises, it is hoped that your support can be counted upon in the area of reparations.” I have heard nothing since.

Clearly that is not satisfactory.

Emancipation Day is approaching, the First Peoples will soon be having their one day, and we are now into the third year of the UN International Decade for People of African Descent. Respect must be given to the matter of reparations for native genocide and the transatlantic slave trade, which are recognised as crimes against humanity.

AIYEGORO OME Mt Lambert