ROSEAU – Dominica has renamed its main airport in honour of two former prime ministers and has indicated that an agreement has been signed with a private sector concern in China for the construction of an international airport.
“I am adamant that we cannot continue, in this day and age, to have our main airport named after an 18th century slave-owner, while at the same time this government is actively seeking, along with our brothers in CARICOM, to get reparations for slavery from the British and European powers.
“No my friends, it is time. It is long overdue, that we have to honour our own. And so let us reflect on the lives of the two patriots for whom this airport will be renamed,” Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said.
He dismissed suggestions that his administration was engaged in politics by renaming the Melville Hall Airport after former prime ministers Roosevelt Douglas and Pierre Charles.
Douglas died of a heart attack in 2004 and Charles succumbed to a heart attack four years later. The airport is now named the Douglas-Charles Airport. (CMC)
