by Jenique Belgrave (Barbados Today) Deputy Chairperson of the National Task Force on Reparations David Comissiong says the $18 million pledge made by the United Society Partners in the Gospel (USPG) for reparatory activities in St John cannot be considered as reparations.
He told Barbados TODAY that for the gesture to qualify as reparations here, it must be the result of negotiations between the liable entity, the National Reparations Task Force and the CARICOM Reparations Commission chaired by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles.
“We certainly appreciate the gesture of the $18 million project but at the same time, you need to know that that is not reparations. If it is a unilateral gesture on your part, it is not reparations,” he said.
Last Friday, General Secretary of the UK-based charity USPG Reverend Duncan Dormor pledged the multi-million dollar investment in reparatory activities in St John communities during a press conference in apology for the organisation’s historical involvement in slave ownership at Codrington Estates.
However, Comissiong said that as the official representative of the wronged community, the Commission had been assigned by the CARICOM Heads of Government with the responsibility of thrashing out reparations packages with civil society organisations, which the USPG would fall under as an Anglican mission agency.
