CARICOM planning tough sessions with UK on reparations

Sign up for our Caribbean Life email newsletter to get news, updates, and local insights delivered straight to your inbox! Frustrated by the slow place of progress and the reluctance of the United Kingdom to engage the region on formal talks on reparations, Caribbean leaders say they will do all they can to confront Britain and bring them to the table to discuss the issue of the trans Atlantic slave trade and Britain’s enduring responsibilities. Speaking in Port of Spain, Trinidad’s capital, during annual slavery emancipation celebrations this week, Prime Minister Keith Rowley said heads of governments will “speak forcefully” with Britain and other countries at the upcoming Commonwealth leaders summit in Samoa in the Pacific in October. “When we meet in Samoa, the Caribbean leaders took a decision this week to very forcefully speak to the Commonwealth as one voice and there is one particular country with a new King and a labor government with an outstanding mandate. We look forward to their reaction in October,” Rowley said. The region has been pushing former European slave trading nations to discuss compensation and reparations for the horrors of the slave trade. Britain has steadfastly refused to engage the region on...