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ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Twenty six years after he was
lined up against a wall and shot alongside some members of his People’s
Revolutionary Government (PRG), Maurice Bishop continues to haunt this Caribbean
island.
Now, his former deputy, Bernard Coard, who was convicted
of his murder, is pointing fingers at the United States, urging the new Obama
administration to bring to an end the final chapter in Grenada’s bloodiest
history.
Grenadians have long wondered what really happened to the
body of their first left wing prime minister whose short-lived PRG came crashing
down in a palace coup onn October 25, 1983.
Two weeks after being given an early release from prison,
Coard has left no doubt that Washington is well aware of the location of the body
of the late charismatic leader.
Appearing on a television programme earlier this week, Coard
made a direct appeal to the new US President to bring closure to the period
that began in 1979 when Bishop and Coard and members of the then New Jewel
Movement (NJM) overthrew the then Eric Gairy government in the Caribbean’s
first successful coup.
“You are the new administration you had no part in this.
You have an opportunity now to start the slate clean. What happened in the (Ronald)
Reagan administration don’t let that hold you back. Make the effort come
clean,” said Coard.
Bishop and several members of his cabinet were lined up
against a wall and executed by soldiers of his own People’s Revolutionary Army
(PRA) at the height of a power struggle between himself and Coard.
His death in October 1983 resulted in a United States-led
invasion of the island and the body of the former prime minister has never been
recovered despite pleas from his family and successive governments.
“I want to say to the new administration in America that
there will be embarrassment over denying it all the time, trying to put the
blame on the 17 knowing fully well you have it,” said Coard, who was one of the
so called “Grenada 17” convicted in 1986 of Bishop’s murder.
But American pathologist
Dr. Robert Jordan, who testified before a “Truth and Reconciliation
Commission” headed by retired High Court judge, Donald Trotman, that presented
its report in 2006, insists that those who murdered Bishop, used dynamites to
destroy the body and make it
unrecognisable after the October tragedy.
“They were dynamited, thrown into a pit, dynamited burnt
and buried” said Dr. Jordan who was
among persons who saw the remains of the Grenada leadership dug out from a hole
at an army camp in the south of the island after US marines invaded the island
on October 25, l983.
“They were really banged up and cut up. What we saw were
just pieces” he told the Commission.
But in his television interview, Coard said that
Washington should respect the people of Grenada by turning over the bodies of
Bishop and the others killed during the 1983 incident.
“You went all over
Vietnam and Korea searching for the remains of your soldiers in wars that were
fought decades ago. Treat our people the same way.”
He told Obama: You are not to blame. It happened by the
previous American administration .You have an opportunity to in fact do the
right thing. I am asking you to do the right thing”.
The 14-month-old Tillman Thomas government is hoping that
“ultimately this issue can be resolved” even as Bishop’s mother, Alimenta, has
repeatedly asked for his remains so she can give him a proper burial.
“The fact of the matter is that she lost her son and as
far as we know, his remains have not been found, have not been presented to her
or her family for a decent Christian burial,” said Finance Minister Nizam
Burke, the government’s spokesman.
“This is a legitimate concern that will continue, I
think, to plague the family and something which ought to be addressed,” he
added.
Earlier this month , a government statement said that the
Minister responsible for the Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy,
Karl I. Hood, had advised the Governor General Carlyle Glean Sr “to remit the
remainder of the sentences of 14 prison inmates and thereby effect their
release from incarceration”.
The statement said that the review of the prisoners’
sentences was in keeping with a court order, arising out of the re-sentencing
hearing in June 2007 that their sentences to be reviewed within two years.
Three of the convicted persons – Lester Redhead,
Christopher Stroude and Cecil Prime – were released in 2007 after High Court
Judge Francis Belle ruled that they had spent enough time in jail for their
roles in the 1983 killings.
Justice Belle had also ruled that 10 other convicted men,
including Coard, would serve 40 years hard labour on their murder convictions,
clearing the way for them to be freed within three years.
The new court sentencing followed a ruling by the
London-based Privy Council, the island’s highest court that overturned the
death sentences that had originally been imposed on the former government and
military officers.
The Privy Council had ruled that the death sentences were
unconstitutional and as a result this also invalidated the process by which
those sentences were later commuted to life imprisonment.
“Their release is based not on subjective factors but
objective factors, their conduct their attitude their industry in prison, their
work their contribution to development in prison and other prisoners” said
Ruggles Ferguson, an attorney for the former prisoners.
“What you are seeing here today is the results of
institutions working not the arbitrary whims and fancies of politicians,” he
added.
Burke said that the government is not concerned over the
release of the convicted people and that the focus now is on reconciliation.
“Government does not support or oppose the decision of
the court. Whatever that decision is, that decision is made,” Burke said,
noting that based on the response of ordinary Grenadians it was quite clear
that “the people respect the decision of the court that has been made and the
decision of the Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy that has been exercised.
“There has been no major uproar, as far as I can tell.
There has been no major political backlash that I can point to. I believe the
people are taking that in stride and hoping that from here it marks the
beginning of the end of a bad chapter,” said Burke.
Coard has acknowledged that the four-year-old PRG
government had comprised of people who were “amateurs…arrogant and
intolerant” and as a result “all our mistakes came home to roost”.
In 1997 he wrote a paper entitled “Reflections And
Apologies” in which “we apologised unreservedly to the Grenadian people”.
“A lot of good things happened in the Grenada revolution,
the new international airport, people were being better educated. And so on.
But we took moral and political responsibility for what happened. We did so
many things that were wrong. And we’ve apologised.
“We don’t apportion blame. We take collective
responsibility for everything that went wrong. We accept full moral and
political responsibility for all of it. And I am still traumatised by it. It’s
not just a question of remorse. I’ve written 70 pages on this issue,” he added.
Now it seems the only material to end the book on the
bloody history of Grenada could be found in the Obama White House.
CMC/pr/09