Gaddafi apologizes for Arab slave traders | Mon Oct 11, 2010 10:26PM
edition.presstv.ir/detail/146302.htmlLibyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has apologized to African leaders on behalf of Arab nations for their involvement in the African slave trade.
"I regret the behavior of the Arabs… They brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful way. I regret and I am ashamed when we remember these practices. I apologize for this," Gaddafi said on Sunday at the Second Afro-Arab summit in Sirte, Libya, Reuters reported.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and a number of other African heads of state attended the summit.
Gaddafi also warned leaders about an increasing threat of annexation and division in Africa in the event that the Sudanese decide to split the country into two states.
Oil-rich Southern Sudan plans to hold a referendum in January 2011 on whether it should remain part of Sudan or establish an independent state.
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Reparations for slavery
Reparations for slavery is the idea that some form of compensatory payment should be made to the descendants of those who have been enslaved by the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Demands for reparations
In 1999, the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission called for "the West" to pay $777 trillion to Africa within five years.[1]
In 2004, Lloyds of London was sued by the descendants of African slaves. The case was not successful.[2] In Jamaica in 2004, a coalition of Rastafari movement groups argued that European countries formerly involved in the slave trade, especially Britain, should pay 72.5 billion pounds sterling to resettle 500,000 Jamaican Rastafarians in Africa. The claim was rejected by the British government, which said it could not be held accountable for wrongs in past centuries.[3]
In 2007, Guyana called for European nations to pay reparations for the slave trade.[4]
In 2011, Antigua & Barbuda called for reparations at the United Nations, saying "that segregation and violence against people of African descent had impaired their capacity for advancement as nations, communities and individuals".[5]
In 2012, Jamaica revived its reparations commission, to consider the question of whether the country should seek an apology or reparations from Britain for its role in the slave trade.[3]
Also in 2012, the Barbados government established a 12-member Reparations Task Force, to be responsible for sustaining the local, regional and international momentum for reparations.[6][7] Barbados is reportedly "currently leading the way in calling for reparations from former colonial powers for the injustices suffered by slaves and their families."[8]
In 2013, in the first of a series of lectures in Georgetown, Guyana, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the 1763 Berbice Slave Revolt, Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles urged Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to to emulate the position adopted by the Jews who were prosecuted during the Second World War and have since organised a Jewish reparations fund.[9][10]
References
[1] "Africa Trillions demanded in slavery reparations". BBC. August 20, 1999.
[2] Gavin Stamp, "Counting the cost of the slave trade", BBC News, 20 March 2007.
[3]a b "Jamaicans Form Commission to Investigate Slavery Reparations from Britain". Associated Press. 1 November 2012.
[4] "Guyana calls for reparations", BBC News, 27 March, 2007.
[5] "Reparations should be made for African slave trade, Antigua and Barbuda tells UN", UN News Center, 24 September 2011.
[6] "Barbados Takes Lead in Fight For Reparations for Slavery in the Caribbean", Atlanta Black Star, November 6, 2012.
[7] Patrick Hunter, "CARICOM and reparations for slavery", Share, 20 February 2013.
[8] Sanchez Manning, "Britain's colonial shame: Slave-owners given huge payouts after abolition", The Independent, 24 February 2013.
[9] [http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/UWI-principal-wants-CARICOM-to-seek-reparation-for-slavery "UWI principal wants CARICOM to seek reparation for slavery", Jamaica Observer, 12 February 2013.
[10] Rony Best, "The Case for Reparations", The New York Carib News, 6 march 2013.
Further reading
Hilary Beckles, Britain's Black Debt: Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide, University of the West Indies Press, 2012.
External links
"The legal basis of the claim for Reparations" by Lord Anthony Gifford, British Queens Counsel and Jamaican Attorney-at-Law. A paper Presented to the First Pan-African Congress on Reparations, Abuja, Federal Republic of Nigeria, 27-29 April 1993.]
"Acknowledgement Of Past, Compensation Urged By Many Leaders In Continuing Debate At Racism Conference". World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa, 2 September 2001.
"National Human Rights Bodies Address General Debate" - action against discriminatory practices urged at Racism Conference. World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Durban, South Africa, 4 September 2001,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reparations_for_slaveryThis page was last modified on 25 May 2013 at 01:23.