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09/08/2004:

"Rastas call for slavery reparations"

A coalition of Rastafarian groups in Jamaica said yesterday that it wanted to go to the UN to persuade Europe to pay billions of dollars to the followers of the faith in reparation for slavery.

The Rastafarian Nation in Jamaica said European countries once involved in the slave trade, especially Britain, should pay $129bn (£72.5bn) to resettle 500,000 Jamaican Rastafarians in Africa.

"It's a matter of human rights and justice for a crime that was committed 300 years ago and whose repercussions are still being felt today," said Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah, a member of the group.

More than 90% of the former British colony's 2.6 million people are descended from African slaves. The coalition, made up of six Rastafarian "houses", presented the reparations figure at a conference in Kingston, Jamaica, at the weekend.

Full Article:Guardian UK