A Call for Reparations on the World Stage
New America Media
Final Call.com, News Report, Ashahed M. Muhammad, Posted: May 04, 2009

GENEVA, Switzerland (FinalCall.com) - Blacks in the Diaspora continued the mission initiated eight years ago at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, to demand the United Nations declare the trans-Atlantic slave trade a crime against humanity, opening the door for a continued push for reparations at the Durban Review Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, April 20-24.

Much of the discussion surrounding the weeklong conference and its activities focused on the non-involvement of several Western nations and reactions to the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the conference.

Neither of which are the main issue, according to the executive director of the December 12th Movement, Viola Plummer, based in Brooklyn, New York.

“The United States has never—prior to Barack Obama and probably succeeding Barack Obama—will never, put the issue of racism on the world stage. It is the responsibility of those of us in the United States to put it on the agenda,” said the fiery long-time activist and organizer.

Ms. Plummer said those who came were still highly committed to the cause. She was not surprised that the U.S. chose to stay away.

“You cannot ask criminals to come and debate their criminality. They won't come. They shouldn't come. We cannot ask the criminals to define their criminality. The people have established unequivocally—crimes against humanity. We have established that! So what do we expect the criminals to do?”

Ms. Plummer, a key member of the Durban 400, a group of Black people from the Diaspora who traveled to Durban, South Africa in 2001 to participate in the WCAR, said Black people have to stop allowing others, who don't have their best interests in mind, frame the debate on the question of slavery and reparations.

Blacks also have to remember what President Obama can and cannot do, she added.

The highly regarded Obama administration has come under sharp criticism for the lack of attendance at the Durban Review Conference. With his influential position, many believed President Obama, whose father is from Kenya, should have been on the forefront of bringing forth the issue of reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Some human rights organizations said the president could have challenged the views of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose mere presence at the conference sparked protests from Zionist non-governmental organizations.

The nations who refused to participate in the Durban Review Conference—the United States, Israel, Germany, Italy, Poland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands—benefitted mightily from wealth generated by the slave trade and exploitation of Africa they refused to discuss.

In an April 23 column in The Guardian, Seumas Milne wrote, “They are all either European or European-settler states.” Mr. Milne referred to the protest by 23 additional European states during President Ahmadinejad's speech as “a white-flight walkout.”

A panel discussion—one of several events at the Durban Review Conference dealing with slavery and reparations—focused primarily on solutions, arguing the fact that slavery was a crime against humanity and is no longer up for debate.

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was a global economic enterprise that effectively laid the financial foundation for every modern Western nation.

“It is necessary that we all recognize slavery and the trans-Atlantic trade of Africans as crimes committed against humanity and that descendents of victims of such criminal practices, as well as the victims of colonialism and the genocidal exploitation applied to Indigenous peoples shall receive the reparation and compensation they deserve,” said Dr. Rafael Bernal Alemany, first deputy minister of culture of the Republic of Cuba.

The issue of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and reparations was raised at the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa in 2001. Grassroots organizations, primarily consisting of Black organizations from the Diaspora, fought hard to get language referring to slavery as a “crime against humanity” in the final declaration document from that conference.

The ethnic and cultural aftermath of the trans-Atlantic slave trade involves 40-50 million descendants of enslaved Africans living in the Diaspora who lost the knowledge of their language, culture and specific origins. Even after chattel slavery ended, the United States' infamous Black Codes continued, which denied Blacks rights, as well as permitted outright physical abuse, rapes and lynching.

A variety of methods were employed by reparations advocates to represent the plight of displaced Africans in the Diaspora. Cikiah Thomas, co-chair of the Global Afrikan Congress, wrote a letter to UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay asking why more African NGOs were not given funding. Ms. Pillay admitted in an open session that funding came in late, however, she said they did their best to accommodate those in need of financial help, and were in fact successful in getting some African groups represented at the conference.

According to Atty. Roger Wareham of the International Association Against Torture, the excuses given by the U.S. for non-participation are smokescreens to avoid discussing the issue of reparations for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. He said the U.S. wants to rewrite history in order to reverse what took place in Durban, South Africa in 2001.

“Reparations has always been the line in the sand as far as the West was concerned. They've used other issues to try to avoid it,” said Atty. Wareham, who also participated in Durban 2001. “Whatever excuse they have given, it is reparations that either led to their non-participation, their withdrawal or their obstructionist participation,” he said.

Atty. Wareham also said the U.S. and the other Western nations are attempting to avoid historical responsibility for slavery, as well as facing criticism for their lack of action since WCAR in 2001. Reparations is a demand to repair the damage done by criminal activity, to make the victims whole and to implement their human right to development. The demand for reparations is also a call to eradicate economic exploitation and inequality, which are the roots of racism and a demand for the provision and direction of sufficient resources to allow the development of African descendants of the enslaved.

Atty. Wareham also pointed out the irony in the fact that slavery was a legal undertaking and a global system, yet efforts by groups seeking reparations through legal redress are prohibited by nations claiming “sovereign immunity.” The argument says if a municipality or a government is not sued within a certain amount of time, it cannot be sued unless the municipality or government gives its permission to be sued. This rarely happens, if ever, because the law was put in place to protect themselves, however, “A crime against humanity has no statute of limitations,” said Atty. Wareham. Page 2, Contnine here

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