Caribbean leaders to sue Britain and others for billions as slave trade reparations

Caribbean leaders to sue Britain and others for billions as slave trade reparations

Posted by Sylvester on Wednesday, March 12, 2014 0

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CARIBBEAN leaders plan to drag Britain and several other European nations before law courts seeking billions of pounds in damages for the injustices meted out to their people during the slavery era.

 In what will be a landmark legal case, a coalition of Caribbean leaders will meet today in St Vincent to discuss reparations over slavery. Caricom, a group of 12 former British colonies together with the former French colony Haiti and the Dutch Suriname, believe Europe should pay for a range of issues spawned by slavery, including poverty, illiteracy and ill health.

According to Caricom leaders, the UK in particular should pay the most even though it was the first to abolish slavery in 1833. They have engaged the services of a British law firm that recently won almost £20m compensation for hundreds of Kenyans tortured by the colonial government during the Mau-Mau rebellion of the 1950s.

Apart from Britain, other European countries likely to be hit by the law suit include Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. If it is agreed to file the suit, the legal action will come at a pertinent time for the issue of slavery as last week, Steve McQueen’s epic film 12 Years A Slave won an Oscar for being the Best Picture.

A Caricom spokesman said: "Over 10m Africans were stolen from their homes and forcefully transported to the Caribbean as the enslaved chattels and property of Europeans. The trans-Atlantic slave trade is the largest forced migration in human history and has no parallel in terms of man’s inhumanity to man.

"This trade in enchained bodies was a highly successful commercial business for the nations of Europe and the lives of millions of men, women and children were destroyed in the search of profit during the 400 years of slavery. At the end of slavery in the late 19th century, less than 2m remained and the chronic health condition of Caribbean blacks constitutes the greatest financial risk to sustainability in the region."

Caricom has not specified how much money it is seeking but senior officials have pointed out that Britain paid slave owners £20m when it abolished slavery in 1834. That sum would be the equivalent of about £200bn today.

About 20 years ago, Chief Moshood Abiola, said during the1993 presidential elections, that he would seek reparations for slavery if he won.  He later won the election but it was annulled and Chief Abiola subsequently died in detention without ever assuming office.