Reparations Tribunal to Try Europe and USA for Crimes Against Africans
Concord Times (Freetown)
NEWS
September 21, 2006
Posted to the web September 22, 2006
By Ibrahim Seibureh
Freetown
An international reparations conference will take place at the Mary Kingsley Auditorium, Fourah Bay College from September 25-26, 2006 as part of a process to build an international tribunal on reparations for African people scheduled to happen in Berlin, Germany around June 2007.
The tribunal intends to put on trial the United States, Europe and other imperialist nations for the theft and plunder of Africa's resources and other crimes committed against Africans during the last five hundred years.
"The conference is the first of series of other meetings we intend to hold in West Africa as part of this process to build the tribunal," Africanist Movement Director, Chernoh Alpha M. Bah who is also head of the Tribunal's West Africa Committee said, adding, "we want to identify and involve other reparations organizations, groups, individual experts and civil society activists in this region to discuss and participate in the process of building this tribunal." Bah, who was speaking at a Press Conference held at Paddy's Beach Bar, Aberdeen in the westend of Freetown says the efforts to build the tribunal is the result of an immediate response to a decision made in Berlin, Germany in October of 2005 by Africans from the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Holland, France, Ghana, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, British Virgin Islands, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Uganda, Ethiopia and Israel amongst others.
"Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African Peoples Socialist Party in the United States was designated to serve as the Person Leading Point for organizing the tribunal," he says, adding that, "the tribunal aims at uniting all reparations organizations and movements worldwide in a common effort that will enhance the significance of all our work and build the necessary practical global relationships and networks necessary for our success." "This will enable us to begin an actual quantification of the value of the human and material resources stolen from Africa and other places Africans were colonized as well as the physical, psychological and cultural damage we suffered as a consequence of these crimes," he stated and argued that, "the tribunal will enable Africans everywhere to achieve a common explanation for the conditions of existence they are confronted with as a people, and also serve as a permanent fixture for the ongoing discovery and exposition of the historical and current bases and consequences of the enslavement and colonization of Africa and African people." Responding to questions about support for the tribunal, Bah pointed out that the tribunal has support and active contacts from throughout the African world.
"Africans from Germany, Holland, Belgium, England, United States, Sierra Leone, Congo, Ghana, Israel and other places met in London, England in March this year where all of us voted unanimously in support of the proposal to build this tribunal," he said, adding that, "more and more organizations and individuals are joining this effort and it is no joke that we are making significant progress. "Asked whether this is an Africanist Movement project, Bah hastily said: "this has nothing to do with the Africanists. It is an international process that involves Africans throughout the world and it just happened that we are participating in this process but it is far from being an Africanist Movement project." He explained that since London, two other meetings have been held in Europe- one in Paris, France on June 2, 2006 and the other in Berlin, Germany on August 26, 2006 as part of this process.
"This is equally a process open to all groups, individuals, organizations and institutions struggling for justice and self-determination for Africa and African people worldwide," he stressed and disclosed that groups like the War Amputees Association, Movement of Concerned Kono Youths, the
Historical Society and other civil society groups have expressed their willingness to participate in this process.
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