By Wellington C. Ramos From Caribbean News Now

NEW YORK, USA — On Friday, delegates from many countries assembled at York College in New York City to discuss the possibilities of seeking reparations for crimes committed against their people by many European countries and the United States. This invitation was extended to them by the Institute of The Black World (IBW) under the leadership of Dr Ron Daniels.

This meeting was moderated by Dr Verene Sheppard from Jamaica, who gave the opening remarks and then introduced the delegates to speak. Each delegate spoke about the history of the atrocities that were committed against their people in their respective countries. Some also mentioned attempts that were made in the past to seek reparations for the injustices that were committed by the European countries that failed.

Of particular interest was the genocide committed by the British against the Garifuna people in their homeland “Yurumein” now known as St Vincent and the Grenadines.

At the end of the presentations the audience was given the opportunity to ask some questions to the panel. Questions were asked about how can dependent nations seek reparations from countries they continue to beg money from; what plans does the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have in place to develop a strategy to deal with countries like Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and the United States when it comes to the Garifuna people; how can St Vincent represent the Garifuna people if it does not have a good record of treating the Garifuna people in their country fairly; and where will CARICOM get the funds from to bring this case against these European nations.

Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, made an attempt to answer all the questions on behalf of the group but admitted that they do not have all the answers for some of the questions that were asked. He said that seeking reparations from the European nations requires a plan of action, which they have in place that will go through some phases. Phase 1 was to try and establish if they have a credible case and that has been established by some legal experts. The next stage is to assemble some legal minds from throughout the Caribbean region and the Diaspora countries to start the litigation against these countries.

This conference was made up of mostly delegates and representatives from different countries and NGOs. They were mostly elderly people and there were only about 100 people present. It is not known what efforts, if any, were made to bring in younger people from the colleges and universities.

According to one attendee, “If the reparation movement is going to be successful, we will have to reach out to our youths and educate them about the atrocities that were committed against our people by the Europeans. They will be the ones to continue this struggle when we leave this planet earth and the settlement may not occur in our lifetime.”

In the afternoon the conference continued with delegates from the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) in the United States discussing reparations for black Americans for slavery.

Most of these representatives were given the opportunity to discuss their knowledge, experiences and research that they have done on the topic of atrocities committed against black Americans during slavery and even up to today.

Some spoke about cases that were brought seeking remedies and reparations against the US government in state and federal courts in the past in regard to the injustices committed against black people by white slave masters, white people, corporations, the states and the federal government. Most of the cases were thrown out by the courts despite the fact that the federal government has issued awards to some native Indian tribes and to the descendants of the Japanese Americans who were unlawfully interned during World War II.

The NAARC members vowed to join the CARICOM nations in seeking reparations for black Americans due to slavery. They claim that fighting as an international group will be more effective than going after the United States government by themselves. One lawyer made a key observation that litigation that started in the courts often ended up with a settlement out of court. It will take different strategies to prevail and the group must explore all of them until they prevail in seeking remedies, reparations and justice for their people.
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