Cuba Supports at UN Caribbean Compensations Claim for Slavery
United Nations. Cuba supported Caribbean countries at the United Nations, in their demand for apology and compensation from European powers for economic slavery, and genocide of native peoples .
"We support the just demand for compensation hoisted by the Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)", said the Cuban alternate ambassador to the UN, Ana Silvia Rodríguez, in a session of the General Assembly to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance of Victims Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
The CARICOM plan drives a demand for reparations to former colonial powers of Britain, France and the Netherlands, an initiative based on diplomacy and engagement, without resorting to confrontation.
"There is a lot of gold stained with slave blood, much wealth generated is the product of shame and reproach. The fate of the peoples of the third world was altered so greatly in human exploitation, and it is these peoples who clearly deserve compensation for the horrendous crimes committed against their ancestors", said the diplomat.
Rodriguez also reiterated at the meeting, the accompaniment of the island to the demands of special and differential treatment required by developing countries, particularly Africa, in its international economic relations.
She also recalled the Cuban support for the draft resolutions and activities of the United Nations on the issue of slavery and its legacy.
"It's the least we can do, the international community needs to repair the crime against humanity committed in the trans-Atlantic, with the enslavement of Africans", she said.
According to the alternate ambassador, "The phenomenon that for four centuries affected between 15 and 20 million people is one of the most serious crimes against humanity that has not been adequately studied, nor is its consequences in today's society duly recognised. These men, women, and children that the transatlantic uprooted from their homes and sent to the Americas as commercial cargo, have received an inhumane, unjust and despicable treatment".
In her speech, she noted that the colonial plantations of Cuba arrived as part of this cruel trade, about one million, three hundred thousand Africans, who were taken by force from their villages and families, and sold as slave labor on the island.
Rodriguez said that the freed slaves and their descendants have been major players in the different stages of the wars that allowed for the exercise of self-determination of the Cuban people "who feels extremely proud of their African roots, which are present in our idiosyncrasy and our cultural manifestations".
The International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade was established in 2007 by the General Assembly. (PL)
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