00:00To some other news now, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission,
00:05is welcoming King Charles III and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham on what he calls a truly historic occasion.
00:13Professor Beckles says Prime Minister Burnham must be commended for his willingness to initiate the conversation on reparations.
00:22Professor Cutting Hasmo.
00:23Mr Burnham is therefore already an historic figure.
00:28We welcome him. We welcome him to the Caribbean with open arms.
00:34We are looking forward to meeting this man of history.
00:40We are ready for this dialogue.
00:44Praises for the UK's Prime Minister from the Chair of the CARICOM Reparations Commission.
00:50As Prime Minister Burnham has agreed to dialogue on the issue of reparations,
00:54almost 200 years since Britain formally abolished chattel slavery.
01:00The British government is now prepared to have a structured conversation with the Caribbean
01:10in respect of reparations.
01:16He hastened to add that we are also open to the possibility of offering an apology.
01:25But we are not prepared to discuss financial reparations.
01:31So we are going to have a structured conversation, and this is unique and progressive.
01:36But that structured conversation for now will not begin with an apology.
01:43Neither should it end with financial reparations.
01:47The discussion is expected to be initiated at the 28th Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
01:53However, the topic does not form part of the official agenda.
01:57It doesn't have to be on the agenda because it will infiltrate and it will penetrate
02:04and it will dominate the environment of the continent.
02:10It is not the elephant in the room.
02:14An elephant is not big enough to correlate to what will be in the room
02:22when the Commonwealth Heads of Governments meet.
02:25Professor Beckles notes that Britain created and greatly profited from chattel slavery
02:30and that the Caribbean was the epicenter of the greatest crime against humanity.
02:37The chattel law says that we were not human beings.
02:40We were property.
02:42We were real estate.
02:44We were no different from any other kind of property.
02:48You could buy us, sell us, lease us, mortgage us,
02:51use us as currency, pay taxes on us.
02:56And this was a model that the British invented
02:58and spread to all of their European cousins
03:01to become the basis of the slavery enterprise of the new world.
03:07And now the Prime Minister and the King are here
03:11in the Caribbean at the site of the creation of chattel slavery.
03:21It is not only for the black people and the indigenous people
03:27who have been exposed to genocide and now the chattel slavery
03:31and even our brothers and sisters from India and China
03:34who were brought into the plantations
03:37through a process of deceptive indentureship.
03:41It is not only about all of us, the human family
03:46that we were excluded from by legislation.
03:51It is in the interest of all of us.
03:54Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
03:57That's your...
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