CATEGORY:MAJOR DEVELOPMENT
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Duncan Campbell
Monday December 11, 2006


ONE OF THE MOST controversial armed conflicts of the cold war era and one which caused a rift between Britain and the US is to be revisited this week in a British court. The case will re-examine an episode that led to more than 100 deaths on the Caribbean island of Grenada and still has ramifications for the region today.

The 14 Grenadians sentenced to death for the assassination of the former prime minister Maurice Bishop more than 20 years ago are due to have their case for an appeal heard by the Privy Council.

In 1983 Maurice Bishop, the socialist prime minister of Grenada, was killed during a coup, along with 10 others, following a violent split within his party. The deputy prime minister, Bernard Coard, Bishop's childhood friend turned rival, declared himself prime minister.

Six days later, President Ronald Reagan ordered the invasion of Grenada, claiming that 650 American students on the island were at risk. According to US figures, 45 Grenadians, 24 Cubans and 19 Americans were killed in the invasion.

Coard was among 14 convicted of the murders and sentenced to death. But the death penalty was commuted to imprisonment for natural life.

This week lawyers will argue in front of the Privy Council, the final court of appeal for Grenada which gained its independence from Britain in 1974, that the sentence of natural life is unconstitutional and that irregularities in the initial trial merit an appeal against conviction, too. The case will be presented by lawyers headed by the leading human rights counsel, Edward Fitzgerald QC.

The mood in Grenada, according to Lesley Pierre, editor of the Grenadian Voice, is that enough time has now elapsed for the men to be released. "So much time has passed," said Pierre, who was himself jailed by the Bishop-Coard government. "My understanding is that all of them would leave the island anyway, although I don't think that should be a condition for their release. They are all Grenadians."

A spokesman for the Grenadian prime minister, Keith Mitchell, said: "Obviously, the government is watching the situation closely."

Three soldiers who were also convicted of manslaughter at the time were released on December 3, having served two-thirds of their sentences.

In 1997, the Grenadian 17, as they became known, published a public apology in the Grenadian Voice. In it, they "fully and unreservedly accept responsibility for the tragedy" but feelings against them on the island still run high.

The Reagan administration justified the US invasion because of the presence of Cuban technicians and advisers who were helping to build an airport.

President Reagan acted without the knowledge of Margaret Thatcher, who was angered by the clandestine invasion of a member of the Commonwealth. George Schultz, then secretary of state, later told the Guardian that Lady Thatcher was "mad at us" for invading without consulting her.

The above article was reprinted from The Guardian Unlimited.