by TONY BEST

BARBADOS, St Kitts-Nevis and their CARICOM neighbours may seek an apology for slavery from United States President George Bush when they meet at the White House in June.

And coming on the heels of a apology from British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in London, CARICOM prime ministers and presidents might go a step further and asked Bush about reparations during their June 21 summit in Washington.

As a matter of fact, Dr Denzil Douglas, St Kitts-Nevis' Prime Minister told the SUNDAY SUN in New York that the question
of an apology would definitely be placed on the table for discussion when CARICOM leaders meet with Bush.

Asked if the question of an apology would be raised, he said, "I believe it is going to definitely going to come up. I think it is an issue that is current."

CARICOM leaders will attend their first-ever CARICOM-United States White House summit in Washington with an American leader.
It is to be held at the end of the United States Conference on the Caribbean, which is scheduled for June 19-21.

The St Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister who told the United Nations last Monday that the Caribbean considered an apology and reparations to be key matters to be resolved with some of the rich countries which built much of their prosperity on slavery, said in an interview that many Americans "do not understand the pain, the indignity and the suffering that so many of our ancestors went through." Hence the need for a "clarification" of the issue and the importance of raising it with Bush and other United States leaders.

Douglas said that although some Americans "seemed to be saying 'yes, it happened, we know it happened, we regret;
so let's move on," Douglas believes the matter can't end there.

"Here's where we need, I think, to really stop, ponder and ask specifically for an apology" from the United States and its top leaders, Douglas asserted.

Deprived

"I believe that the reparations for example that some are asking for aren't necessarily seenin the context of dollars and cents,. That's not what people are asking for. People are recognising that to a large extent we are under-developed, we have been deprived.
We still have our future countries to build. We need support, for instance, for infrastructural development. We need support in human resource development.

"I believe reparations and an apology of some kind, seen in this context, should in my opinion find favour with the authorities" in Washington, Douglas said.

In a ten-minute address delivered on behalf of the Caricom region to a special United Nations (UN) session of the UN General Assembly that was held to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Douglas said an apology and reparations were on the region's agenda.

Antonement

"No country that was engaged in the slave trade and slavery could justifiably claim support for human rights without first offering an official apology and atonement in the form of reparations," was the way he put it.

"It is only under such circumstances that the descendants of slaves can truly forgive and move forward in the world. From the perspective of the people of the Caribbean, the descendants of slaves, these two matters will remain crucial to us for the indignity, suffering and the haunting legacies we live with as a result of the slave trade and slavery."

In his apology, the British Prime Minister didn't mention reparations but said that the bicentenary "offers us a chance, not just to say how profoundly shameful the slave trade was - how we condemn its existence utterly and praise those who fought for its abolition, -- but also to express deep sorrow that it ever happened, that it could have happened and to rejoice at the difference and better times we live in today."

The Church of England, the City of Liverpool and London's Mayor, Ken Livingston have all formally apologised for slavery but no American leader has done so.