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Last of 1983 rebels freed
Coard, 13 others released from Grenadian prison
BY RICKEY SINGH Observer Caribbean correspondent editorial@jamaicaobserver.com
Sunday, September 06, 2009
BERNARD Coard is a free man. The former controversial deputy prime minister of the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) was released from prison after serving 26 years for his role in the execution of Grenada's Prime Minister Maurice Bishop on October 19, 1983.
Thirteen other political prisoners were released along with Coard, who was among an original group of 17 prisoners convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Bishop and some of his Cabinet ministers and close colleagues of the New Jewel Movement (NJM).
Among those murdered was Jacqueline Creft, the popular education minister, who was then pregnant.
That horrific, unprecedented Caribbean tragedy is recalled as a "revolution" that devoured itself on that bloody day in October and preceded the United States military invasion of that country at dawn on October 25.
Cubans engaged in the construction of a modern airport at Point Salines - the most high-profile development project of the PRG - were among those killed, along with soldiers of the People's Revolutionary Army (PRA) and US Marines.
Ironically, the release of the last batch of the so-called "Grenada 17" - convicted for the 1983 murders that led to the collapse of the PRG and subsequent US invasion - took place under the watch of the 13-month-old government of first-time Prime Minister Tilman Thomas who was once a political prisoner of the PRG under Bishop and Coard. His National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has also renamed the country's international airport after the slain Bishop, a promise that ex-Prime Minister Keith Mitchell never kept, despite the close relations he had cultivated with Cuba.
In addition to Coard, the 13 other prisoners to obtain their freedom, on the basis of recommendation from the country's Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy, were four who were once prominent either in the PRG or PRA - Selwyn Strachan, Liam James, Leon Cornwall and Ewart Layne.
The others include:
. Winston Antoine;
. Dave Bartholomew;
. Callistus Bernard;
. Michael Jeffrey;
. Michael Louison;
. Keston McQueen,
. Joseph Paul;
. Kevin Taylor; and
. Hilary Ogilvie.
Phyllis Coard, the Jamaican-born wife of Bernard Coard, who like her husband was viewed as leading ideologues and militants of the "revolution", was released from prison several years ago on compassionate ground due to serious health problems. She has since been living quietly in her native Jamaica.
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