Gairy rebuffs mediators

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33450, 4 February 1974, Page 17

Gairy rebuffs mediators

(N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) ST GEORGE (Grenada), February 3. The dictatorial Prime Minister of Grenada (Mr Gairy) has rejected a bid by Caribbean religious leaders to engage him in direct peace talks with his political opponents.

Mediators lor the Caribbean Council of Churches arrived on the island a few days ago and met the coalition of businessmen, unionists, and churchmen opposing Mr Gairy in a struggle which has disrupted life on the island. The mediation team then arranged a morning meeting yesterday between Mr Gairy and the Opposition coalition, known as the Committee of 22, but Mr Gairy refused to attend. The team, headed by Archbishop Anthony Pantin, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Trinidad, still hopes to meet the Prime Minister. Striking longshoremen led hundreds of marchers opposed to Mr Gairy’s leadership through the hilly streets of the capital for the second day in succession, and again the demonstration was peaceful. A voice over a loudspeaker on top of a Government vehicle urged the marchers to accept the Prime Minister’s invitation to join the

celebrations next Thursday, the date set for independence from Britain. Many opponents of Mr Gairy are against independence, fearing that when it comes he will tighten further his stern rule, and turn the 133-square-mile tourist island into a police State. Strikes have paralysed the waterfront, shut off the telephone service, and blacked out the island of 110,000' people for nearly two weeks. Petrol is scarce, as are certain imported food staples, such as flour, sugar, and cooking oil. Many residents have fled elsewhere, and the island’s vital tourist industry is in a shambles. The would-be mediators’ effort is the strongest so far to resolve the crisis, which developed towards the end of last year. On New Year’s Day, long weeks of intermittent protest against Mr Gairy’s use of a secret police force against his political opponents erupted into the waterfront strike. The stoppage was called to give economic leverage to demands that Mr Gairy “end police brutality, and respect human rights.” On January 20, the workers of the telephone and electric power companies went on strike, leaving the island without electricity or telephones for the last 13 days. The ensuing economic paralysis has reduced the Government’s revenue by 90 per cent, according to the Minister of Finance (Mr George Holsten) and Mr Gairy is said to have appealed to Britain for emergency aid to pay its civil servants.