He pointed a finger directly to Cameron, reminding him that a few of his relatives had actually owned slaves in the region and had been paid millions by today’s measure when the trade was officially ended in the region more than 200 years ago.
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The prime minster has firmly rejected the suggestion, urging “Caribbean countries to move on”, HomeBT reported.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller (right) looks on as Chief of Defence Staff Major General Antony Anderson is introduced to British Prime Minister David Cameron (third right), by British High Commissioner to Jamaica, David Fitton (left). He also said that it should be remembered that it was Britain who took the initiative to “wipe slavery off the face of our planet”.
“We have spent more than £60 million here in the Caribbean over the last five years to help the countries deal with the effects of climate change but frankly, I think we can do much more”, he said.
The prime minister, while on a two-day visit in Jamaica, on Wednesday said his presence in the region signifies that Britain “is back in the Caribbean” and is looking to forge business partnership with countries across the region.
In a subsequent meeting with Mitchell and his Cabinet, Cameron stressed the continuity of links between the United Kingdom and the Caribbean.
“How do we move on from our past because our past shapes our future?” The academic has made no secret of his desire for Britain to make slavery reparations.
“You are a grandson of the Jamaican soil who has been privileged and enriched by your forebears’ sins of the enslavement of our ancestors”.
Beckles even dared to suggest to Cameron that London has plans to undermine the collective regional effort by treating Jamaica better than the other members of the regional trading bloc.
Instead, he wants Cameron to “acknowledge responsibility of rehabilitation and renewal”. But Verene Sheperd, who chairs Jamaica’s National Commission on Reparation, tells Julian Keane that the debt needs to be settled for the healing process on both sides to begin.
Simpson Miller indicated that she raised the highly anticipated and controversial matter of reparations, but there seemed not to have been a deep discussion. Britain has not commented on this and will not accept a case for reparations.
“It has no place whatsoever in any civilized society, and Britain is proud to have eventually led the way in its abolition”, Cameron said when addressing Jamaican MPs. Others in the sights of the region include Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and France.
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Speaking to the joint Houses of Parliament in Jamaica this week, Cameron announced a package of over £360m (over US$600m) of bilateral aid, featuring vital new infrastructure in the Caribbean, including Belize, such as roads, bridges and ports to help drive economic growth and development across the region.
