20 Years after Grenada's nightmare

[Christopher Carrico <ccarrico@xxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.guyanacaribbeanpolitics.com/commentary/rsingh.html

I believe that Rickey Singh is Trinidadian, not Grenadian,
but either way he has more insight into the matter than
whomever wrote the AP article.


Posted October 19th. 2003 Guyana Chronicle
20 YEARS AFTER GRENADA'S `NIGHTMARE'
By Rickey Singh

GRENADA'S PRIME Minister Keith Mitchell has chosen today,
the 20th anniversary of Grenada's nightmare of political
executions and United States military invasion of the spice
isle, to launch his ruling New National Party's election
campaign for a third term in government.

He will have as his special guest to address the NNP's pre-
election convention the Prime Minister of Barbados, Owen
Arthur.

The NNP's primary opponent for the election, the National
Democratic Congress (NDC) has already criticised Arthur
with "interference" in the coming campaign by his acceptance
of the invitation.

But it is now common practice for the region's ruling and
opposition parties to have CARICOM leaders as special guests
at their conventions.

Prime Minister Mitchell, however, seems set on pursuing a
strategy to exploit to his NNP's political advantage for the
coming election campaign the 20th anniversary of the
tragedies of October, 1983, that were to propel his tiny
Eastern Caribbean island into the world's headlines.

By next weekend, Grenada is expected to host some Caribbean
and North American politicians and others in also marking
the 20th anniversary of the US military invasion that
followed the October 19 coup - second in the island's
history - and killings that had so traumatised an entire
region.

The first coup in that largely tourist-dependent island,
famous for its spices, had occurred four and a half years
earlier, on March 13, 1979.

It was carried out by some of the very leading militants of
the New Jewel Movement (NJM) who were involved in toppling
the regime of the then corrupt and repressive Eric Gairy,
and later destroyed their own "revolution" in October 1983.

The NJM-led coup was noted for its comparative bloodless
nature and the overwhelming popularity with which it was
greeted across the island.

In contrast, the October 19, 1983 coup against the People's
Revolutionary Government (PRG) that the NJM had established
under the leadership of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop - much
to the surprise and annoyance of the United States of
America that was to remain ever hostile - is today still
recalled as a day of blood-letting, shame and fear.

Maurice Bishop
Among the executed political prisoners of October 19 was the
charismatic Maurice Bishop himself, along with cabinet
ministers and close NJM comrades. Information about the
remains of his charred body is known to the US military
forces.

They had fallen victims at the hands of other "comrades", 17
of whom, including the most famous Bernard Coard, former
Deputy Prime Minister and reputed Marxist theoretician of
the `Grenada Revo' (revolution), are still languishing in
prison cells at Richmond Hill.

Their cases constitute unfinished business from the October
1983 tragedies, and need to be independently and objectively
reviewed in the interest of the "justice" that so many, in
and out of the Caribbean, like to prattle about.

After 20 years, leaving them to rot and die in prison is not
the retribution Maurice Bishop would have favoured, had he
escaped the execution of that bloody October 19.

The atrocities of executions and the paralysis of fear that
had enveloped the island, provided the excuse for the then
Ronald Reagan administration to upgrade its own political
agenda.

It moved swiftly with its military invasion on October 25,
code-named `Urgent Fury', for "freedom and democracy", to
crush what Washington had deemed in the then prevailing Cold
War atmosphere, to be part of an international "communist
axis" involving Cuba, Nicaragua and Grenada.

The curfew imposed by the short-lived `Revolutionary
Military Council' under command of General Hudson Austin,
had already been lifted and the United States Government
officially advised from St. George's of a return to civilian
government within TWO weeks.

For its part, Cuba had requested Washington to avoid a
military invasion and assured it of the immediate withdrawal
from Grenada of all Cuban nationals, the great majority of
whom were engaged in the construction of the new
international airport at Point Saline.

Regional Collaborators
But by then the US invasion, in which some CARICOM
governments, including that of the Barbados administration
of then of Prime Minister Tom Adams, had collaborated, was
already underway with CARICOM sharply divided over the
foreign military intervention.

Today, another Republican President, George W Bush, having
identified a new "axis of evil" - Iraq, Iran and North
Korea - has already launched his pre-emptive war on Iraq,
while remaining implacably hostile towards Cuba and denying
justice to some 650 political prisoners at the naval base at
Guantanamo.

The tragedies of executions and invasion were never exposed
to an independent public inquiry for which the trials of
those convicted of the murders of Bishop and his colleagues
could not have been a substitute.

Especially, as significant information, subsequently
disclosed, were to expose many flaws in the trial of the so-
called infamous `Grenada 17' - 14 of them condemned to death
and three others sentenced to manslaughter.

For all I have written, over the years, about the related
tragedies of October 19 and October 25 and their
implications for peace, justice, security and sovereignty in
the Caribbean, it may come as a surprise to some that I
should raise concern for the `Grenada 17'.

It is a question of justice. The available documents provide
some chilling evidence of wrong doings.

In particular the legal correctness of a leading trial judge
whose critical role had included instruction to a
controversially chosen jury to sign a verdict sheet he had
prepared on which they had to place their name next to each
of their verdicts with respect to each of the 16 men and one
woman (Phyllis Coard) on trial. (See Court record Vol.4 part
4).

Respected legal luminaries with whom I have checked this
information, agreed that such an instruction was a serious
violation of the secrecy of a jury's verdict.

It is a matter that merits examination by, for example, the
Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations
(OCCBA) as well as some personal interest by those serving
on the newly established Regional Judicial and Legal
Services Commission to serve the emerging Caribbean Court of
Justice.

Americans like Oliver North and others of the Reagan
presidency who have been talking about being in Grenada next
week for a 20th anniversary "celebration" of the US
invasion, would not be interested in the fate of the
`Grenada 17', any more than they care about the fate of the
650 prisoners holed up in dehumanising conditions at
Guantanamo Bay.

The remains of Maurice Bishop remain a mystery and crucial
documents forcefully carted away by the invading US forces,
are still being held in America, despite repeated requests
for their availability in Grenada.

A monument proudly stands in the Point Saline area in memory
of the US war dead of that invasion. But none to the
Grenadians who were killed in defence of their little island
state against the invading might of the USA.

After 20 years, are the related tragedies of October 19 and
October 25 simply to be exploited for partisan political
gains in Grenada?

Or is it time to wipe away that "liberation" spin the Reagan
administration, and its regional collaborators, had put on
the "Urgent Fury" invasion to satisfy its own Cold War
agenda against "international communism"?


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