'Ethnic cleansing' used out of context

August 02, 2009

President of the National Association for the Empowerment of African People (NAEAP) Prof Selwyn Cudjoe has chastised UNC Opposition MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh over his claims of "ethnic cleansing" at the Port of Spain General Hospital charging that he, Gopeesingh, used the term out of context.

Cudjoe, in anaddress at NAEAP's ninth annual Emancipation Dinner and Awards Ceremony held at the Centre of Excellence in Macoya on Friday evening, suggested that he does not clearly understand the meaning of the term otherwise he would not have misused it .

"Ethnic cleansing is a war crime," Cudjoe said, noting the ethnic crimes that have taken place over the past in countries such as Turkey, Cambodia and Rwanda which have resulted in the mass killing of one group of people.

"If Dr Gopeesingh does not know what the term ethnic cleansing means after 1.5 million Armenians were killed in Turkey between 1915 and 1918 -where close to one million Cambodians were killed in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979-where almost one million Tutsis were killed in Rwanda in 1994-(then) I am more sorry for this country than I am for Dr Gopeesingh," Cudjoe said.

He also expressed disappointment that the claim was coming from a member of the Opposition party "who have put forward themselves as leaders of an alternate government".

Cudjoe said that Gopeesingh's claims that Indians were being forced out of the public health sector could not be substantiated given that the statistics "confirm that 80 per cent of the country's doctors are East Indians, 74 per cent of the radiographers are in fact East Indians while 45 per cent are medical technologists".

Cudjoe also took aim at the media, condemning it for producing what he said were only negative images of the black community while ignoring the positive aspects.

"If you read the newspapers on a daily basis you would think that the only thing that black people do was to kill one another and to kill others," he said.

He called on the media to pay more attention to the positive contribution and achievements of the black community. Cudjoe also called on the Government to give more support to black organisations which aim to empower African people in this country.

The audience gathered at NAEAP's Dinner was also addressed by Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Prof Patrick Manning, a Professor of World History with special interest in the lives of persons in the African Diaspora, who was invited to participate in this year's emancipation celebrations by the Prime Minister.