THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM THE EDITORIAL PUBLISHED A YEAR AGO OCTOBER 26, 2003.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL's call... for a judicial review of the cases of the Grenada 17 the persons convicted for their alleged role in the death of Maurice Bishop and his colleagues in October 1983 is a poignant reminder that the implosion that led to the deaths, should not only be analysed from the geo-political perspective, as is often done, but also in terms of the human tragedy.
It was more than a tragedy that Bishop, his Cabinet colleagues, union leaders and civilians were executed subsequent to an internal party dispute; ...and that 20 years later, few of the affected families got any bodies to bury and so experience some form of closure...
In its statement from London... Amnesty repeated a charge often made by supporters of those incarcerated as well as by legal scholars, that the trial of the 17 violated international standards. The Amnesty report listed allegations of irregularities in jury selection, a denial of a competent and independent tribunal, lack of legal representation and allowing what it described as questionable evidence. Piers Bannister, a researcher with the international human rights watch-dog agency, who is not unfamiliar to the Jamaican public, has suggested that a retrial be done in the name of justice...
The psyche of the people of that southern Caribbean island remains deeply scarred by an ugly family quarrel. Clear attempts are being made to reopen the debates and to discuss the positives and negatives of the revolution and how it self-destructed. It is a necessary step in the process of healing.
We in Jamaica are not that far removed from the Grenadian tragedy either emotionally or physically. Jamaicans were there before and after the revolution as well as being major players at the time of the US-led invasion. For Grenada's trauma is an indelible page in Caribbean history.
