By N. Thomas-Brown, Guardian Staff Reporter

nadine@nasguard.com

Minister Perry Christie on Wednesday accepted a petition from Rastafarians who had launched a protest in Rawson Square calling for an end to all forms of discrimination, and acts of brutality against Rastafarians and people in low-income areas around the Bahamas.

The Prime Minister acknowledged the Rastafarians' right to fair treatment, and said that people should be made aware that there are differences in any society and the reasons for those differences. People, he said, ought not to be fearful of those differences.

Led by their Royal Ambassador Priest, Rithmond Mckinne, the rastafarians were armed with a petition containing a list of demands which they intended to present the Prime Minister after he left parliament. The group and their supporters, some of whom had perms and shaved heads, stood like soldiers under the banner of the rasta flag under a hot sun . They wore white t-shirts and ceremonial robes. Motorists watched as the rastas chanted and sang.

The petition, among other things, demanded an end to unjust laws which it said targeted Rastafarians and poor people from the inner cities, while ignoring affluent communities. It also demanded an end to the "discriminatory practices of any schools in the Bahamas which excludes Rastafarian children".

" Us coming here in numbers shows our solidarity and that we are firmly tired of the oppression,"...

The Royal Ambassador added that he was concerned by the fact that Rastafarians were given no religious respect, and that there was allegedly no protection for them and their way of life under the Constitution of the Bahamas. He went on to say that the negative stereotype of his group was unfair, and that they wanted to move away from that image. He felt that they have a positive role to play, especially as it related to stopping the violence among young people.

Meanwhile, prominent supporters of the protest such as Keod Smith, MP for Mount Moriah, and head of the Human Rights activist group, Elsworth Johnson, spoke in support of the group. The former, giving a heated speech in parliament later that evening about the abuses suffered by Rastafarians in the prison system, spurred further debate on the treatment of Rastasfarians when they are incarcerated.

The Rastafarians' protest came a week after they had registered to vote. This year marked the first time they have ever done so.