MONTEGO BAY, St James – Opposition parliamentarian Mike Henry on Friday asked Rastafarians for forgiveness for the 1963 ‘Coral Gardens Incident’ and demanded that the Government compensate the victims of the persecution carried out by agents of the state.

Henry made his plea at the commemoration of the 44th anniversary of the ‘Coral Gardens Incident’ – or what has been dubbed in Rastafarian circles as ‘Bad Friday’ – at the ‘Dump up Beach’ in Montego Bay.

Rastafarians had said they would use the event to demand an apology from the Government and the Opposition for the abuse, and to celebrate the progress of the movement since 1963. They also said they would address a number of critical issues.

“I can only, as Mike Henry, long-serving member of the JLP, say to the gentlemen who wore their locks with pride, who stood for what they believed in, who were misunderstood by a system and mistreated by a system, I say to you, brothers, in the name of Jah Rastafari, forgive I,” said Henry, a relentless advocate of reparations for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, debate on which started in the Parliament a few weeks ago.

“I am here as Mike Henry who happens to be a member of the JLP,” he continued. “I say that very clearly because I think what was done was very wrong. I think what was done should not have gotten to the extent to where it got to. And I think if I want reparation overseas I must seek reparation here too where it is needed.”

Henry’s expression of remorse came after director of the Pitfour Nyabinghi Centre in St James, Ras Junior Manning, sought an apology from the People’s National Party (PNP) Government and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party for the ‘Coral Gardens Incident’ in which Rastafarians were hunted down, trimmed, imprisoned and brutalised.

The incident was triggered by the murder of five people, among them two policemen and the owner of a gas station in Coral Gardens, an upscale community in Montego Bay. The murders were reported in the press as having been committed by two Rastafarians from the communities of Salt Spring and Flower Hill in St James.

On Friday evening, the hundreds of Rastafarians who attended the commemoration heard accounts of persecution from survivors of the incident. The evening also featured Nyabinghi drumming and chanting, display of craft and cultural performances.

Henry also said that he would ask the Parliament to legalise the use ganja as a holy sacrament for members of the Rastafarian faith.

“I maintain that marijuana must be made a sacrament of Rastafari and there should be no criminality attached to it under the umbrella of Rastafari,” he said. “Don’t tell me you cannot make marijuana a sacrament of Rastafari for you have made wine a sacrament of the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Church.”

He said, too, that “If Rastafari was a brown man religion, everybody would a wrap it up long time and gone with it everywhere”.