India contributes $260,000 for slave trade victims’ memorial

UNITED NATIONS - India has contributed $ 260,000 to the United Nations Trust Fund for the construction of a Permanent Memorial dedicated to the millions of victims of the transatlantic slave trade.

“India’s contribution is reflective of our firm belief that the international community must pay homage to the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade,” India’s Permanent Representative Hardeep Singh Puri said Thursday.

So far the Trust Fund, has received a mere US $ 800,000, with India being the lead contributor. This falls significantly short of the anticipated expenditure of $4.5 million for the construction of the Memorial.

“It is, therefore, obvious that there is an imperative for the international community to actually come forward and contribute to this noble cause,” Puri said addressing the UN General Assembly.

“We, therefore, strongly urge all countries and especially those who benefited from the transatlantic slave trade, to come forth and generously contribute to show their earnest acceptance that wrongs were committed and there is a sense of repentance.”

Transatlantic slave trade is one of the most shameful chapters in human history, he said.

The wrenching of people and their transportation away from their own people and homes to distant lands, across an ocean, makes every other atrocity committed in the history of mankind pale into insignificance, Puri said.

“The work of the United Nations can never be complete until we emphatically and without any reservation condemn the transatlantic slave trade. We firmly believe there should be a genuine sense of acceptance that these horrific crimes took place along with sincere repentance of the same.”