THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE INTERNATIONAL MEDIA have been saturated with the breaking news of the three-year sentence imposed on David Irvine in Austria for the criminal offence of denying that the Jewish holocaust happened. Mr. Irvine, a discredited historian, was charged with having conducted a lecture ten years ago where he denied that the gas chamber was used against the Jews. Yes, it is a fact that in Germany and Austria there is no freedom of speech as regards stating publicly that the Jewish holocaust was a myth. In France too, there is a law against denying that there was genocide in the European state of Armenia.
NO APOLOGY FROM EUROPE
The holocaust and the genocide in Armenia, in terms of time, is likened to an evening gone, when we consider the duration of the European-imposed African slave trade, which lasted over four centuries. Now, 200 years later, there has not been a recorded meaningful apology offered to us by any European government. At the same time, they have on their statute books, a crime punishable with a maximum of 10 years, a mere statement that mass murder aimed at their own Europeans did not in fact take place.
We have always been placed at the very bottom, when issues regarding our virtual humanity are being considered. In the great United States of America, the land of the brave, the home of the free, we were not considered humans. This accounts for the fact that the American Consti-tution was not interpreted to outlaw slavery and more con-temporarily racial discrimi-nation. And Europe, who built its wealth and enjoyed the immense and lasting benefits of the industrial revolution at our expense, using our blood, sweat and tears to enhance their economies, have constantly denied compensation to us. Where you deny liability, you are virtually denying the wrong you did and by extension denying slavery itself. However, no one has or will ever be charged for this crime.
DENYING OUR TRAGEDY
This jewel in the British Crown (as Jamaica was described during slavery) remains in their treasury. They had the gall to compensate the owners of slaves, consequent on the abolition of slavery, leaving us today, 'indebted' to them with their mix of loans and aid to strangle us into abject poverty. Just two weeks ago, the Church of England registered their apology, 200 years late, for keeping slaves while they preached the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So while sugar reigned as king, we were here treated like abandoned dogs, robbed of our families and our culture, tortured, branded with our masters' names on our chests.
Yes, they have committed crimes against humanity for four centuries, yet no one has ever been charged, as Irvine has been, for denying our tragedy. Time alone will tell.
I am, etc.,
BERT S. SAMUELS
Attorney-at-law
33 Duke Street
Kingston
