Top Bajan unionist blasts domestic ‘terror’

BRIDGETOWN — Senator LeRoy Trotman, general-secretary of the Barbados Workers Union (BWU), the country’s most powerful trade union, has likened the local crime wave to a form of “domestic terrorism” that was causing “havoc” in this Caribbean Community state.

Trotman, a former president of the Caribbean Congress of Labour, who also heads the local umbrella body, Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados, said that the official authorities and the country in general need to look as seriously at the “terrorism” of the domestic criminals as they did in relation to the scourge of international terrorism.

“We are victims and scared victims in our own homes. We have to ask ourselves what brings us to that level of existence where we are all unwilling to walk the streets alone at night,” he said in the Senate on Wednesday, as fellow senators nodded in approval.

The Senate was at the time debating a new Anti-Terrorism Bill, which, as earlier happened in the elected House of Assembly on Tuesday, was unanimously approved.

While cautioning that Barbados should not become “like the leadership of the United States, or cease abiding by the rule of law” in combating terrorism, Trotman said that there should no longer be the impression that the law was good for the terrorists, but not beneficial to those who were law-abiding.

One senator of the opposition Democratic Labour Party, Leroy McClean, in supporting the legislation, also warned that Caribbean and other independent states should be “wary of the US label of terrorist”, as its president was doing in relation to nations to which that superpower was opposed, among them Cuba.

Panday rejects return of Maharaj to UNC

PORT-OF-SPAIN — Former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday has dismissed as “mere speculations” reports of his former attorney-general and deputy leader, Ramesh Maharaj, returning to the fold of the United National Congress (UNC) in a bid for “reconciliation” ahead of expected new general election before year-end.

He, however, confirmed to colleagues at his weekly Wednesday “shadow cabinet” meeting at party headquarters at the Rienzi Complex in Couva, that there was a meeting between him and Maharaj but claimed that it was “blown out of all proportion by media specualtion, and remains a non-issue”.

Some party stalwarts, among them Panday’s former finance minister Gerald Yetming, had threatened to disrupt the party’s post-election unity in opposing the governing People’s National Movement should Ramesh be allowed to return to the UNC.

Noting the large media presence at the Rienzi Complex for Wednesday’s meeting of the party’s top brass, Panday jokingly remarked: “The only frenzy at Rienzi was the media frenzy at Rienzi.”

Maharaj and two other former UNC cabinet ministers in the 2001 government headed by Panday, have been blamed for forcing the party to hold new election after just one year in office for a second term.

The trio of Maharaj, Trevor Sudama and Ralph Maraj had teamed up with other dissidents to form what became known as “Team Unity” to contest the December 10, 2001 general election. Team Unity lost all of the 36 seats contested, with only Maharaj barely saving his deposit.

Antigua orders airport probe after BA’s problem

ST JOHN’S — The Antigua and Barbuda Government has decided to mount an immediate investigation into the circumstances that resulted in a British Airways flight being stranded at the VC Bird international airport on Wednesday which affected some 140 passengers en route to St Lucia.

In a statement issued by Aviation Minister Robin Yearwood, it was explained that the BA 777 aircraft has taxied to the end of the recently renovated runway and upon making a U-turn in preparation to line-up for take-off, the wheels of the right main landing gear “which pivot on the turn, embedded into the asphalt of the Turning Circle”.

Immediately, the minister explained, airport emergency personnel rushed to the scene and implemented the necessary measures required for circumstances of this nature. But the airport has had to be closed to incoming traffic, except for small-bodied aircraft, including twin- engine and dash-8 planes that are part of regular traffic.

The 140 passengers who were bound for St Lucia were removed from the affected BA aircraft and transported to the terminal building from where hotel accommodations were arranged for them as alternative measures were being pursued to have them sent on to St Lucia.

Meanwhile, a team from Carib Financial Services in New Jersey, USA, is expected in Antigua on June 12 to discuss with the government plans to upgrade the airport, including replacement of the asphalt at the Turning Circle with concrete.