Caribbean leaders demand slavery reparations summit

CARIBBEAN LEADERS are calling for a high-level summit with European nations, including Britain, to discuss reparations for slavery, insisting that the issue must be addressed. Sir Hilary Beckles, chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, said this week that the region will persist in pushing for a summit to develop a reparatory justice model for the Caribbean. “It is our intention to persist with this strategy of calling for a summit (with European nations) to work through what a reparatory justice model ought to look like in the case of the Caribbean,” Beckles told Reuters this week. Beckles also expressed the UK’s Labour government, with David Lammy as foreign secretary, would support reparations talks but questions Lammy’s ability to push the issue forward. “(Lammy) has been a supporter of the (reparations) discourse while he was in opposition,” Beckles said. “The question is whether he would be given a free hand in his government… to take the matter to a higher level.” No government apology The renewed calls come after former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak rejected the idea of both issuing a formal apology for Britain’s role in slavery and paying reparations. During a heated Prime Minister’s Questions session earlier...