Beckles Appointed Chair of Caribbean Reparation Commission

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) – Noted Caribbean academic, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, has been appointed to chair a Caribbean Reparation Commission that will seek to advance the region's position on the injustices suffered as a result of the slave trade.

Sir Hilary was appointed at the end of the first ever three-day Regional Reparation Conference that ended here late Tuesday.

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders at their meeting in Trinidad in July had agreed to the formation of a region-wide Reparations Commission to seek compensation from Europe for native genocide and enslavement of Africans during colonization.

Member of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Reparation Committee, Joseph Delves, speaking on the state-owned NBC radio Wednesday, described the conference as a "huge success".

He said that the Commission would comprise the various heads of the national reparation commissions.

"We have also set up and appointed some five vice chairs…so that body will be the body that would be advising the CARICOM heads.

"So you have your structure going forward. We also adopted the significant terms of reference for this Caribbean wide Commission and the conference ended with the public filming of the movie called 'War' a movie on Walter Rodney, the great Caribbean academic from Guyana.