By Vernon Daley, Staff ReporterPRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson will sign the agreement setting up the controversial Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) during a ceremony next Monday, The Gleaner has learnt.
Members of the Opposition Jamaica Labour have, however, indicated that they will boycott the ceremony, which is to be held at the Office of the Prime Minister, St. Andrew.
Mr. Patterson will sign the agreement in the presence of invited guests from the Government, political parties and civil society. Dr. Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM, is among those expected to attend the function, which begins at 5 p.m.
"It will be a very simple ceremony but we thought it important to mark the event," Minister of Information, Senator Burchell Whiteman, told The Gleaner yesterday.
INVITATIONS
Derrick Smith, Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives, said he was not aware of all the JLP members who had been issued with invitations for the ceremony. However, he said the official word from the party is that it will not participate in the function.
"I got an invitation but I'm not going," said Delroy Chuck, Opposition spokesman on Justice.
He suggested that attending the ceremony would conflict with the stance of the JLP, which recently voted against a resolution in Parliament which gave Government the go-ahead to ratify the pact.
The JLP and other interest groups have been calling on the Government to hold a referendum on the CCJ rather than use its majority in Parliament to set up the court.
Ratifying the agreement will help speed up plans to establish a US$100 million trust fund to finance the court. CARICOM leaders last year agreed to authorise the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to establish the fund by raising the money on the international capital market. Jamaica's contribution to the fund is US$26.8 million.
