SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A group of Caribbean leaders met with senior clergy from the Church of England on Tuesday as the push for slavery reparations intensifies, with activists also calling for the independence of British, French, Dutch and U.S. territories in the region.
The reparations commission from Caricom, a Caribbean trade bloc, was scheduled to also meet with British parliamentarians as part of a four-day official trip to the United Kingdom to seek reparations, the second such trip since November.
The group said the commission is creating a framework to launch negotiations because the time for making the case for reparatory justice is overdue.
“We in the Caribbean remain the most colonized part of the world, and this has to stop,” said Hilary Beckles, chairman of Caricom’s reparations commission and vice chancellor of the University of the West Indies.
The meetings in London come after Caribbean leaders bristled at the recent suggestion by a U.K. lawmaker that Britain’s former colonies should repay it for its historic investment in them.
The commission noted that the Caribbean has at least 20 territories with ties to Britain, France, the Netherlands and the United States.
“I am quite sure the people of the Caribbean … will be looking to see whether their king … is going to advance this conversation about sovereignty, decolonization and reparatory justice for these crimes that have been committed,” Beckles said.
David Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to Caricom, echoed those comments, stressing that the first step of reparations must be the recovery of national sovereignty and self-determination.
He said the commission had a “productive meeting” with three senior clerics from the Church of England, calling it a “possible ally.”
He also praised King Charles III for expressing in recent years “personal sorrow at the suffering of so many” as he noted “slavery’s enduring impact.”
However, Comissiong and others criticized the United Kingdom for ab …
