TT National Committee on Reparations chairman Dr Claudius Fergus has rejected a recent position taken by the British government that the issue of reparations will not be on the agenda of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Samoa.
The CHOGM takes place from October 21-26.
On October 14, the UK Guardian reported that a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said reparations were not on the agenda for CHOGM.
"Just to be clear, reparations are not on the agenda for the Commonwealth heads of government meeting. Secondly, the government’s position on this has not changed. We do not pay reparation," the spokesperson said.
On October 19, the BBC reported that the UK government said there would be no apology for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade at CHOGM.
The BBC quoted a government spokesperson saying its focus will be on current issues, such as driving growth across its economies.
In a statement sent by WhatsApp on October 20, Fergus said, "The obstinacy of the British government to attempt to veto discussion on reparation at CHOGM 2024 is an insult and abomination to the descendants of the victims of these crimes against humanity.
"It must not be tolerated and must be defeated by other conscientious heads of state."
The committee, he continued, fully supports a position taken by Caricom Reparations Commission chairman Prof Hilary Beckles that no carpet is big enough to sweep under the just demand for reparations from Britain for its leading role in the human trafficking and enslavement of Africans for hundreds of years.
"We also affirm that the time-lapse since emancipation in 1838 is not long enough to nullify the justification for reparatory justice for the descendants of the victims of these crimes against humanity."
[caption id="attachment_1115843" align="alignnone" width="1024"] NO APOLOGY, NO REPARATIONS:A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says there will be no discussion of reparations or apology from the British government for the transatlantic slave trade at the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa. - AP PHOTO[/caption]
Fergus said, "On the eve of the Emancipation Act of 1833, Thomas Buxton, parliamentary leader of the Anti-Slavery Society, acknowledged Britain owed the soon-to-be emancipated Africans compensation 'for their barbarous removal (from Africa) and enslavement' in her plantation colonies."
He added, "Instead of compensation, the government instituted draconian policies to deprive emancipated Africans access to land and keep them in a state of permanent subjugation."
Fergus said that now is the "time of reckoning" and the reparations movements would not retreat or relent until concedes, starting with a formal apology.
"The argument that the current generation of Britons had nothing to do with slavery or the slave trade is without merit because these two crimes were foundational to Britain’s infrastructure of economic and financial prosperity and global power from which the current ge
