Government has sought not to associate independence with its CARICOM plans, but this week a CARICOM body calling for reparations has coupled it with a call for decolonisation
The PLP Government has tried to stress that their plan to make Bermuda a full CARICOM member is not part of a push for independence from the UK.
However, CARICOM officials appear to be making that push on behalf of all Overseas Territories seeking sovereignty.
The CARICOM Reparations Commission is currently in the UK for a three day programme to “advance its advocacy for reparatory justice”.
During a media briefing at the University of London yesterday, David Comissiong, Barbados Ambassador to CARICOM, said the Caribbean remains the most colonised part of the world.
He said, “as part of our reparative justice demand, we are dedicating this reparations campaign to supporting all of those movements in the Caribbean and elsewhere that are demanding decolonization… We are making the case that reparations and decolonization go hand in hand.”
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, said “when Columbus came across the Atlantic, he arrived in the Caribbean. That triggered the process. And we are still here…
“The world has been decolonized, maybe 95%. We in the Caribbean remain the most colonized part of the world.”
Sir Beckles is a Barbadian historian. He said the UN Committee on Deolonisation did good work in the early 1900s, but has since slowed down.
He added, “we are saying to the world and to the United Nations – re-energize that process that started in 1916, re-energize it and bring an end to colonisation.”
At their meeting last week, the CARICOM Heads of Government endorsed a revised ten-point plan for reparatory justice, which includes a demand for “monetary compensation as reparations from enslaving nations, monarchies, churches, [and] institutions” for the victims of the trans-Atlantic trafficking and enslavement of Africans.
The manifesto also demands the cancellation of certain related debts, and states that CARICOM “supports the notion that the process of decolonisation of the still existing European and North American colonial territories is an important component of the reparations cause.”
The document states elsewhere that “the demand to the European and American nations that maintain these colonies is to listen to the calls of the African-descended and Indigenous populations of those colonies for independence, self-determination and reparations.”
“Reparations and decolonisation are bound by the hip of justice.”
The reparations campaign is expected to have a prominent presence at November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Antigua and Barbuda.
King Charles is set make his first speech at the event as monarch.
UK media asked the Commission on Tuesday if any pressure will be put on the King to accede to CARICOM’s demands.
Professor Sir Hilary Beckles answered that he was “quite sure that the people of the Caribbean… not only our governments, but the people and civil society on the streets will be looking to see whether their king… is going to advance this conversation about sovereignty, decolonization and preparatory justice for these crimes that have been that have been committed.”
“It’s a wonderful moment in history, and I think the whole world is going to be observing whether the Commonwealth will go forward into a dialog of decency, or whether the Commonwealth will be seen as a site of resistance.”
Both Premier David Burt and Home Affairs Minister Alexa Lightbourne were present at the recent CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in St Lucia.
Bermuda Broadcasting today asked if they were party to any of the discussions surrounding the revised plan for reparatory justice.
In response to media inquiries, a Government spokesperson said that it notes the recent coverage of the CARICOM Reparations Commission.
The spokesperson added, “as an Associate Member of CARICOM, Bermuda is not a member of the Caricom Reparations Committee and therefore has had no input in the framing of the Caricom Reparations Justice Program. Bermuda remains an Associate Member of CARICOM and a colony.”
