Caribbean nations take aim at the British, Dutch and French in slave-trader lawsuit

The Standard, Hong Kong, July 26, 2013

An exhibit on the slave trade at the
UN in March

Leaders of more than a dozen Caribbean countries are seeking compensation from three European nations for what they say is the lingering legacy of the Atlantic slave trade. 

The Caribbean Community, a regional organization, has taken up the cause of compensation for slavery and the genocide of native peoples and is preparing for what would likely be a drawn-out battle with the governments of Britain, France and the Netherlands, AP reports.

Caricom, as the organization is known, has enlisted the help of a prominent British human rights law firm and is creating a Reparations Commission to press the issue, said Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, who has been leading the effort.

Any settlement should include a formal apology, but contrition alone would not be sufficient.

“The apology is important but that is wholly insufficient,'' he said in a phone interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. “We have to have appropriate recompense.''

The notion of forcing the countries that benefited from slavery to pay reparations has been a decades-long quest. Individual countries including Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda already had existing national commissions. Earlier this month, leaders from the 14 Caricom nations voted unanimously at a meeting in Trinidad to wage a joint campaign that those involved say would be more ambitious than any previous effort.

Each nation that does not have a national reparations commission agreed to set one up, sending a representative to the regional commission, which would be overseen by prime ministers. They agreed to focus on Britain on behalf of the English-speaking Caribbean as well as France for the slavery in Haiti and the Netherlands for Suriname, a former Dutch colony on the northeastern edge of South America that is a member of Caricom.

In addition, they brought on the British law firm of Leigh Day, which waged a successful fight for compensation for hundreds of Kenyans who were tortured by the British colonial government as they fought for the liberation of their country during the so-called Mau Mau rebellion of the 1950s and 1960s.

Attorney Martyn Day said his first step would likely be to seek a negotiated settlement with the governments of France, Britain and Netherlands along the lines of the British agreement in June to issue a statement of regret and award compensation of about US$21.5 million to the surviving Kenyans.

“I think they would undoubtedly want to try and see if this can be resolved amicably,'' Day said of the Caribbean countries. “But I think the reason they have hired us is that they want to show that they mean business.''

Caribbean officials have not mentioned a specific monetary figure but Gonsalves and Verene Shepherd, chairwoman of the national reparations commission in Jamaica, both mentioned the fact that Britain at the time of emancipation in 1834 paid £20 million to British planters in the Caribbean, the equivalent of £200 billion today.

“Our ancestors got nothing,'' Shepherd said. “They got their freedom and they were told `Go develop yourselves.’’

British High Commissioner to Jamaica David Fitton was quizzed on the issue Wednesday during a radio interview and said that the Mau Mau case was not meant to be a precedent and that his government opposes reparations for slavery.

“We don't think the issue of reparations is the right way to address these issues,'' Fitton said. “It's not the right way to address an historical problem.''

In 2007, marking the 200th anniversary of the British prohibition on the transportation of slaves, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed regret for the “unbearable suffering'' caused by his country's role in slavery. After the devastating Haitian earthquake in January 2010, then French President Nicolas Sarkozy was asked about reparations for slavery and the 90 million gold francs demanded by Napoleon to recognize the country's independence. Sarkozy acknowledged the “wounds of colonization,'' and pointed out that France had canceled a 56 million euro debt to Paris and approved an aid package that included 40 million euros in budget support for the Haitian government.

Related Articles:

Suriname wants Dutch compensation for slave trade

Give us a ring if you want to quit the kingdom, Rutte tells Caribbean islands

DutchNews.nl, Saturday 20 July 2013

Mountains and coral reefs added

to Dutch landscape

Dutch Caribbean islands which want to leave the kingdom of the Netherlands only have to say so and it will happen, prime minister Mark Rutte has said during a visit to the former colonies.

Rutte told the NRC newspaper that officials looked at him shocked when he made the surprise announcement during a meeting.

‘I said ‘if you want to leave and a majority of your people support that position, then it is possible. Give us a ring and we will arrange it’,’ the prime minister told the paper.

Financial support

Rutte said he hoped the offer would prevent any further requests for financial support. ‘I told them that if we ever talk again about the way the state is organised then it will be if you want to leave the kingdom,’ the paper quoted him as saying.

The status of the five of the six islands changed in 2010. Curacao and Sint Maarten are now autonomous countries while Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius have the status of a local authority. Aruba has been independent since 1986.

Criticism

Rutte has visited all six islands during his visit and has been outspoken in his criticism of the way three – Curacao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire – are being managed, the NRC said.

In particular he has instigated a ‘far-reaching probe’ into the integrity of government on Sint Maarten.

The island’s justice minister was forced to resign earlier this year after it emerged he ran several brothels. There has also been criticism of the €9,000 a month paid to parliamentarians. Sint Maarten has just 39,000 residents.

Other islands also have financial troubles. In September 2012 Curacao was placed under a formal compliance order by the Dutch government when its budget showed a shortfall of 153m Antillean guilders, of which nearly 100m guilders was needed to cover debts from previous years.

Related Article:

Mountains and coral reefs added to Dutch landscape

Senior Curacao politician shot dead while having a beer with friends

DutchNews.nl, Monday 06 May 2013

The leader of Curacao’s biggest government party and a fervent campaigner for independence has been shot dead close to his home.

(ANP)

Helmin Wiels, 54, headed the ruling party Pueblo Soberano but chose to remain in parliament when it became part of the government. He was shot by two men on the Marie Pompoen beach who drove off in a gold coloured Kia, Nos television said.

Wiels was having a beer with friends, having sent home his bodyguard earlier in the day. A spokesman for his party said they suspect organised crime to be behind the killing because of Wiels work in combatting corruption.

The Carribean island of Curacao is a former Dutch colony and now forms an independent country within the kingdom of the Netherlands.

Related Article:

Curacao politician Helmin Wiels shot dead

Guyana deals with aftermath of deadly protests

BBC News, 30 September 2012

Several buildings were destroyed during the electricity protests

Related Stories 

• Guyana probes fatal protest clash
• Governing party wins Guyana poll
• Close result predicted in Guyana

The fatal shooting by police of three people at a protest over electricity prices in Guyana has reopened historical divisions in the South American nation, reports the BBC's Nick Davis in Georgetown.

James Rutherford holds up an X-ray of the shotgun pellet that is still in his body.

"If they [the police] or the government had talked to people, it wouldn't have happened; it wasn't called for," he says.

An aluminium mine in the town of Linden was at the heart of the protest that ended in tragedy on 18 July. 

Injuries from the July shooting are still
being dealt with

There is still plenty of the aluminium ore but with low global demand, the role of mining in the community has declined massively and unemployment is rife.

In the past, the mining operation had its own generators producing surplus energy and a deal was made to sell electricity to locals.

It was supplied at a reduced rate for most and given free to pensioners, as compensation to the community for having a mine on its doorstep.

Over the years, the plant has gone from private ownership to being government-controlled, back to being privately run and has changed hands a number of times - but electricity remained cheap as prices across the country in other poor communities rose.

When the government announced earlier this year that it was scrapping the electricity subsidy, it alarmed everyone in the community.

The national motto of Guyana is One People, One Nation, One Destiny, but this is clearly a nation divided.

The two largest ethnic groups are of South Asian and African descent. The country's politics are split along racial lines with many Indo-Guyanese supporting the governing People's Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), the black community supporting the coalition opposition - A Partnership for Local Unity (APNU) - and the Amerindians holding the balance of power.

'People's parliament'

Christopher Ram, an accountant and newspaper columnist with the Stabroek News who looked into the price rises, said scrapping the electricity subsidy would have meant price hikes of between 300% and 800%.

The average residential bill in Guyana is around $40 (£24) a month but with more than 70% of Lindeners out of work and those employed making an average of about $200 a month, people in the town said they couldn't pay and took to the streets.

Linden, with its population mostly from the black community, is the gateway to Guyana's vast and resource-rich interior. When demonstrators blocked the bridge that connects it to the capital Georgetown, that - they say - is when police fired tear gas and shotgun pellets into the crowd. 

People are submitting written evidence
at the "people's parliament"

"I'm going to be a pensioner soon, that's why we protested because we can't afford it. I'd be dead if I had to pay that," said one woman.

At a store in town known as the "people's parliament", people were rowdy as they recollected the events back in July.

The shop is more like a community centre, as they waited to give written evidence to the Commission of Inquiry into the killings.

Despite having an office in town, people have been coming to have their testimony written down by APNU supporters, because they say they trust them more.

Jahmake Brummell says he was having a drink when a round hit him.

"We heard the sound and then saw the tear gas so we started running," he said.

"I felt my leg go numb; it felt like it was burning. People were trying to help and the police were shouting: 'Let him die there.'"

Local people angered by the deaths blockaded the town in further protests that lasted a month, almost completely cutting off the south of the country. Vital supplies were unable to get to some Amerindian communities and mining camps in the rainforests.

Nation divided

"The government should have come and sat with people before they made decisions which impacted them politically, economically and socially, that's what led to this situation," said Sharma Solomon, chairman of the regional government.

A team including legal experts from across the Caribbean is part of the Commission of Inquiry looking into the deaths. The electricity price rises and the economic situation in Linden will also be investigated. 

The Commission of Inquiry is looking
into all aspects of the case

There are allegations that the situation was whipped up by political parties with the blockades designed to force the government to cut electricity prices and the violence a warning against voting for the opposition.

"There was a frightening of the Indian population over the lawlessness in Linden," said Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, deputy chairman of the APNU.

"They also told the Amerindians that the reason they didn't have gasoline and food was because these people in Linden - read black people - were in effect making their lives miserable."

But the government is adamant that there was no discrimination at the heart of anything it has done.

"We have other parts of the country that are asking us 'why should Linden pay a different rate of electricity to us when the state guarantees equal treatment to all'," said the country's Attorney General Anil Nandlall.

"It's a fallacy that Linden has been discriminated against."

The official inquiry is set to last six weeks. At the Supreme Court in Georgetown, the jurists have started looking over the evidence.

Some people believe the investigation will have lasting benefits.

"The people of Linden entered into negotiations with the government; they got a negotiated settlement to some of their main concerns," said Nigel Hughes from the opposition Alliance for Change (AFC).

"I think in terms of independence and autonomy it's a significant step forward for the region. I'm hopeful this will blossom into an example for the rest of the country to follow."

In Linden the sound of the streets reflected its Caribbean links as reggae could be heard up and down the main street.

There were lots of people on the street, clearly with not much to do.

"It's not that we don't want to pay our bills; we just don't know where we'll get the money," said a female security guard as she kept an eye on the people milling around.

Dutch Santa faces ban in Suriname

RNW, 23 December 2011

Dutch Santa faces ban in Suriname

Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of Santa Claus, looks set to be banned in Suriname. MPs in the former Dutch colony say the Sinterklaas festival is racist.

A white Sinterklaas brings presents for children accompanied by his blacked-faced ‘helper’ Zwarte Piet, or Black Peter. The critical MPs say this master-servant relationship serves as a bad example for children.

It was the former president of the Latin American country, Ronald Venetiaan, who raised the issue in parliament during a debate on the culture budget. He described it as a "provocation" that the Sinterklaas festival should be celebrated on Independence Square in the Surinamese capital Paramaribo.

Parliament now proposes a ban on the celebration of Sinterklaas in schools. It is expected that the proposal will be approved when the government responds next week.

Like Santa, Sinterklaas is a kindly, gift-giving old man with a long white beard, but his red and white garb is far more ecclesiastical. More importantly, he has nothing to do with Christmas – his festival is celebrated on 5 December.

Soot

Sinterklaas’ gift-bearing assistant Black Peter is traditionally a black-faced character in Moorish costume with thick lips and curly black hair. He is also a source of controversy in the Netherlands. This year, protestors were arrested when they appeared at a Sinterklaas parade wearing t-shirts bearing the slogan ‘Black Peter is racism’.

The vast majority of Dutch people deny that there is anything racist about blacking up to play the role. They sometimes skirt the issue of Black Peter’s racial origin by explaining that his black face comes from the soot in the chimneys through which he descends to bring children their presents. One an answer to the accusations of racism, popular in Suriname, is to swap the black make-up for blue or other colourful variations.

End of slavery in Dutch colonies commemorated

RNW, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1 July 2011

A two minutes silence was observed Thursday to commemorate the abolition of slavery in Dutch colonies. The memorial is the beginning of celebrations that continue Friday with the Keti Koti festival in Amsterdam.

Thursday’s observed silence was followed by the raising of the flags of the Netherlands, Suriname and Curacao. A choir also sang the countries’ national anthems. The theme of this year’s memorial is ‘Standing Together and Celebrating Life.’

A second commemoration, which kicks off the Keti Koti festival, will take place Friday at the National Slavery Memorial in Amsterdam’s Oosterpark. The emotional memorial will be followed by a day of music and celebration. A parade, live music and entertainment are scheduled to take place in the park until late afternoon.

Last year’s Keti Koti festival attracted 35,000 visitors.

Related Article:

Global record on fighting slavery

Bouterse involved in drug crime after conviction

RNW, 22 January 2011

The President of Suriname Desi Bouterse allegedly continued to be involved in international drug crime after being convicted of drug smuggling by the Netherlands in 1999. The revelations were made by Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad based on cables by US diplomats in Surinam and neighbouring Guyana released by WikiLeaks.

President of Suriname Desi Bouterse

The cables indicate the Surinamese president was involved in drug smuggling until 2006, when he was still an MP. He allegedly had links to Shaheed 'Roger' Khan, Guyana’s biggest drugs baron, who is currently serving a 30-year prison sentence in the United States.

A spokesperson for President Bouterse told RNW correspondent Harmen Boerboom that he did not think the revelations would pose a problem for the president. “He is democratically elected by the Surinamese people.”

Voters already knew that Bouterse had been convicted of drug smuggling in the Netherlands and that he is suspected of giving the order for the December murders, in which 15 members of the opposition were killed in 1982 during an earlier term as president.

The 'cables' report a number of locations where Bouterse and Khan are believed to have met. Desi Bouterse also visited Guyana a number of times in spite of an international warrant for his arrest.

The two men are believed to be involved in various murders and plots to murder former Surinamese Minister of Justice Chandrikapersad Santokhi and procurer general Subhas Punwasi, who were responsible for a clampdown in drug crime.

The cables do not reveal whether the President Bouterse was involved in drug crime after 2006. Surinam is a former Dutch colony.

Mountains and coral reefs added to Dutch landscape

RNW, Gijs van den Heuvel, 8 Oct 2010

(Photo: Auntiem)

The Netherlands is turning into a tropical country. No, it's not global warming. It's an extension of the small state on the shores of the Northsea by three little Caribbean islands, a remnant of the country's colonial past.

It has been discussed for what seems like ages, but on 10 October 2010 it is really going to happen: the country called "Netherlands Antilles", a former Dutch colony in the Caribbean, will be disbanded. Of the five islands, the two biggest will acquire an autonomous status in the Dutch kingdom. The three smaller ones - Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, jointly known as the BES islands - will henceforth be governed directly from The Hague on a par with municipalities in Holland, adding a whiff of the tropics to the flat country behind the European dykes. A sixth Caribbean island, Aruba, was given autonomous status much earlier, in 1986.

This remains unchanged.

The changes are the implementation of new legislation drawn up by the Netherlands' government a couple of years ago aimed at improving the governability of the "overseas dominions". They had already lost their colonial status in 1954. In several referendums held since 2004 the islands' populations have voted in favour of the new form of government.

Facts and figures

So how will people in the former Netherlands Antilles experience the new form of government? And will the Netherlands and the rest of the world notice anything?

The change in the kingdom's make-up will hardly affect the average Dutchman in Europe, but it won't do any harm to adjust a few of the most-cited statistics about the Netherlands. Such as these:

• The Dutch territory will expand by 322 square kilometres (roughly the size of Malta)
• The Netherlands will have a new highest point. It used to be the Vaalserberg in the province of Limburg, with an altitude of 322.5 metres. But this will be dwarfed by Mount Scenery on the island of Saba, which reaches 877 metres. And a good number two is The Quill on Sint Eustatius, at 600 metres.
• In addition to its flat, sandy Northsea coastline, the Netherlands will acquire coral reefs. Divers know they are found off Bonaire, but Saba and Sint Eustatius are also surrounded by coral reefs.
• The two official languages of the kingdom, Dutch and Frisian, will be accompanied by two new ones: Papiamentu (on Bonaire) and English (on St Maarten).

On the islands

The Antilles islanders will be faced with quite a few changes, although not everyone will notice these immediately.

• In 2011, the US dollar will be introduced as the new currency. Owing to their proximity to the US, they are mostly dollar economies anyway.
• Dutch and European law will apply on the islands.
• But some of Holland's laws which are radically at odds with the local culture on Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba, will be introduced only gradually. These include liberal legislation on abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriages. The islanders will be allowed two years to get used to the idea before the laws come into force.
• Local schools have to change gears in order to better qualify pupils for Dutch school diplomas. The curriculum in subjects like history and geography has of course been adapted to the Caribbean location of the islands.

Misunderstandings

Friso Fennema, a spokesman for the Government Office for the Caribbean Netherlands told RNW that there are some persistant misunderstandings among the islanders. He would like to set the record straight:

• Many people believe that Papiamentu and English will be banned as official languages. That's not true; they will continue to be used.
• Many islanders are convinced that only European Dutch nationals can apply for government jobs. That is false, in fact 93 percent of vacancies are currently being filled by local applicants and that is not going to change.
• Employers on the islands fear that they will have to pay the European Dutch minimum wage, and are concerned that the unemployment benefit will be raised to the European level. That is out of the question, Mr Fennema said, because then the Antillean islands would become totally unattractive for Caribbean entrepreneurs.

Anthem

On Sunday 10 October the untitled national anthem of the Netherlands Antilles will give way to the Wilhelmus, the stately, sedate Dutch national anthem, dating back to the 16th century. But the Antilles anthem had a shadowy existence anyway, as every island had its own song.

It remains to be seen whether that will change in practice. Why on earth would the Caribbean islanders sing the words, "William of Nassau am I, of German blood". Speaking of which, many inhabitants of the flat European part of the Netherlands can't make sense of the anthem's text either.

Related Articles:

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Status change means Dutch Antilles no longer exists

Farewell to the Netherlands Antilles

Berbice Dutch officially extinct

Radio Netherlands Worldwide, 25 February 2010 - 9:12am

Berbice Dutch, a Dutch creole spoken in part of Guyana, has been declared officially extinct, according to an article in the March issue of the Dutch edition of National Geographic.

Berbice Dutch was spoken in plantations along the River Berbice, part of Guyana which was once a private colony founded by a Dutch planter from Zeeland. It is a mixture of the Zeeland dialect of Dutch, the local Arawak Indian language and Ijo, spoken by slaves from Nigeria.

Twenty years ago there were still handfuls of Berbice speakers in Guyana but, since it has been discovered that the last speaker died in 2005, the authoritative international language database Ethnologue has declared Berbice Dutch extinct.

A wide variety of Dutch creoles once existed around the globe. They included Albany Dutch, Jersey Dutch and Mohawk Dutch in North America, Berbice and Skepi in South America, Cape Dutch in South Africa, Ceylon Dutch in Sri Lanka and Javindo in Indonesia.

Those still alive and kicking include Papiamento in the Netherlands Antilles and Sranan Tongo in Surinam. Afrikaans, which is based largely on Dutch, is not officially classed as a creole although it does have features in common with many creoles.