A consortium of Rastafarian Houses and organisations are formally demanding that European nations, especially the United Kingdom, pay Rastafarians £72.5 billion (J$7.9 trillion) so they can be repatriated and resettled in Africa. This will supply the resources needed to allow up to 500,000 Rastafarians to settle in the motherland. The invoice includes: . a 10-year stipend for 500,000 persons, totalling £5 billion; . five jet airplanes at £1.5 billion; . two cruise ships at £1.0 billion; . five merchant ships at £2.5 billion; . establishing five hospitality centres in Africa at £5 billion; . purchase of tractors and farm equipment, communication satellites, solar power equipment, computers and cultural products totalling £10 billion; . establishing five multi-purpose hospitals at £5 billion; . sustainable project funding repairing, agriculture, health, culture, housing, economic, education, and museums totalling £40 billion; and . other expenses totalling £2.5 billion. The request is one form of reparation for the atrocities meted out to Blacks who were enslaved by Europeans for over 300 years. The petition is the "first time that an invoice has been done on behalf of the Rastafari", according to Barbara Makeda Blake-Hannah, co-ordinator of the Jamaica Reparation Movement (JaRM). She was speaking with the Observer at last Saturday's conference on Slavery, the Haitian Revolution and Reparation. It was staged by Unesco and Blake-Hannah was a presenter. The Rastafarian houses involved in the petition are David House, Nyahabinghi, 12 Tribe, Boboshanti - Ethiopian Black International Congress, and Ethiopian World Federation. The organisations include the Jamaica Reparations Movement, Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). "It is purely for Rastafarian repatriation. But we are not saying that others cannot do their own form of reparations," said Blake-Hannah who maintained that the sum requested was not overly ambitious as the 2000 Ghanian conference on reparations had placed total reparations to all the descendants of Africans who were brought unwillingly to the Caribbean, North America or South America "in the region of US$770 trillion". The consortium which calls itself the Rastafarian Nation in Jamaica (RNIJ) wants its case taken to the United Nations International Court at the Hague. But first, the Government of Jamaica would have to raise the case on RNIJ's behalf. The Hague settles legal disputes submitted to it by states. The idea of the Jamaican Government raising the issue is not far-fetched. The issue was raised by Opposition Member of Parliament Mike Henry in July and there are plans to have it debated in Parliament. "Peter Phillips, leader of government business and minister of security (a former Rastafarian) had also indicated that the Government side supports a debate on reparations," said Blake-Hannah. "We would submit the petition immediately prior to the debate." The RNIJ wants the UNHRC to establish a reparations fund supervised by persons appointed by UNHRC with the approval of RNIJ to administrate the distribution of funds received as a result of this petition. The RNIJ pledges to contribute 10 per cent of all reparations payments received to five African nations that invite the resettlement of Rastafari in their countries for the benefit of African development. "The RNIJ mandates the Government of Jamaica to place this invoice before the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) and the United Nations International Court at the Hague," said the document which was revealed Barbara by Blake-Hannah. SOURCE: JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM