Barbados PM wants Caribbean to remain a zone of peace

UNITED NATIONS (CMC) – Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley on Thursday called for the Caribbean region to remain a zone of peace and that there should be no acceptance of the region “becoming a theatre for confrontation or for the unilateral and unjustified use of force”. In an address to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Mottley said that it is also necessary for political leaders in the Caribbean to play a pivotal role in ensuring that the region remains peaceful and progressive. She said that in the French-speaking Caribbean Community (Caricom) country of Haiti, where criminal gangs are seeking to overthrow the government following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021, the security crisis continues to retard political renewal and economic recovery. “Still, preparations for a return to constitutional government are moving forward, even with great difficulty. But those efforts cannot succeed unless security improves, particularly in the areas containing more than half of Haiti’s electorate,” she argued. She said as a result, Barbados supports the full deployment that has been long-promised and the renewal of the mandate of the 5,500 Gang Suppression Force (GSF), a multinational security mission authorised by the United Nations Security Council to combat armed gangs in Haiti. “Let me remind you that it was in 2022 that this recent, more heightened state of insecurity began with the fuel riots. Enough is enough. At the same time, we thank all member states who have contributed in whatever way to helping Haiti find its path,” she said. Mottley said that this includes the three-member Caricom Eminent Persons Group (EPG), chaired by the former St Lucia prime minister Dr Kenny Anthony and including Bruce Golding and Perry Christie, the former prime ministers of Jamaica and The Bahamas respectively. She said that EPG has been helping to build consensus in Haiti and maintain engagement with key international partners. Mottley said that the region is also “deeply concerned” by the worsening humanitarian pressures facing the people of Cuba as the United States, which has in place a decades-old trade and economic embargo against Havana, has in recent months stepped up its programme of seeking to remove the government on the island. The aggressive strategy, led by the Donald Trump administration, has pushed the island into an unprecedented humanitarian and economic crisis, and following Washington’s removal of the Nicolás Maduro government in Venezuela, it has completely halted Venezuelan oil shipments to Cuba, cutting off the island’s primary energy lifeline. “Too many people are suffering. Restrictions on trade, finance and access to fuel are intensifying hardship not only for Cuban citizens, but also for all others who study and live there,” Mottley said, adding that Barbados has, each year, opposed the use of the embargo and other unilateral coercive measures against Cuba. “As always, we call for constructive engagement. This must be grounded in dialogue, sovereign equality and respect for international law. “ Mottley said that Barbados was also extending its continued solidarity to the people of Venezuela as they recover from the devastating double earthquakes in June and that Bridgetown remains committed to supporting the South American country’s longer-term recovery. “A stable, sovereign, peaceful and democratic Venezuela is vital to the security and prosperity of the wider Caribbean. In this regard, I take this opportunity to reiterate Barbados’ steadfast support to its sister Caricom country of Guyana as it seeks to bring a peaceful resolution, through the International Court of Justice, to the long- outstanding controversy with Venezuela. “This is in the interest of the people of Guyana, Venezuela and the people of the wider Caribbean,” Mottley said, adding “the Caribbean must remain a Zone of Peace.” In her address, Mottley said that on March 25 this year, the United Nations adopted a “historic resolution” where the overwhelming majority of states acknowledged the truth that the trafficking of enslaved African and Racialised Chattel Enslavement of Africans was the gravest crime against humanity. “Yes, we in Barbados painfully know this reality. Regrettably, we still carry the scars. I have reminded us that it was my country that passed the first Slave Code in 1661. Others followed, including the infamous Code Noir of 1685. It was only repealed this year; hence the wounds are still raw,” said Mottley. She said Barbados accepts the moral responsibility of removing the cross of slavery with its horrific consequences, adding, “We must effect healing through reparatory justice. It is the right thing to do.” She said in July, Caribbean leaders approved the revised Caricom Ten Point Plan for Reparatory Justice, telling the global community “for the Caribbean, for Africa and for all of those countries concerned, the honest engagement must begin. “We do not ask for reparations without accepting responsibility for our own self-repair, which we have undertaken for decades. I want to be very clear about this Mr President. Let there be no doubt. The mindset that established, justified and sustained slavery is the same mindset that sustains the iniquities and inequities within the power structures of this very institution and within the international financial architecture. The same mindset that caused a global map to remain grossly inaccurate for centuries,” she said.