BRIDGETOWN – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to attend this week’s Caribbean Community summit in Barbados, CARICOM officials said Tuesday, adding that the presence of the head of the world body augurs well for increasing the profile of the region.
The gathering is expected to focus on the situation of Haitians and their descendants in the Dominican Republic, CARICOM’s drive to secure reparations from Europe for slavery and colonialism and the appearance of 13 Caribbean territories on a new European Union list of international tax havens.
Other special guests at the July 2-4 summit will be Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela and outgoing Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma.
Barbadian Prime Minister Freundel Stuart will preside.
Stuart, who chairs the CARICOM reparations subcommittee, said the bloc’s head of government want to pursue talks with former slave-trading nations Britain, France and the Netherlands.
The problem of Haitians in the Dominican Republic is expected to be a major focus of the summit.
Santo Domingo is facing criticism from around the world amid fears that it will seek to deport tens of thousands of Dominican-born Haitians.
CARICOM comprises Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
