Thu Mar 16, 2006
Native Caribbean inhabitants want end to discrimination
A group of Arawaks and Caribs in the region has called for years of discrimination against the Caribbean's first inhabitants to be reversed.
Damon Gerard Corrie of the Lokono-Arawak Nation and Jacob Che Frederick of the Karifuna-Carib Nation, issued a joint release on Thursday complaining about their marginalisation.
According to them, the Karifuna Carib inhabitants of Trinidad and St. Vincent and the Grenadines still have no territory to call their own following the arrival of Europeans in the Caribbean some five centuries ago.
They also called for greater recognition in Dominica where five per cent of that country's population is Karifuna Carib.According to the release, the natives are forced to accept a grossly inadequate five square mile territory along with a police presence, which they claim violates international law.
At the same time, both Karifuna-Caribs of Dominica and the Lokono-Arawaks of Barbados have also indicated they have reclaimed the small Barbados outcrop known as Culpepper Island.
Copyright© 2005 RJR Communications Group
