Caribbean Report 25-02-1997

Abstract

A human rights organisation, Aldet Complaints Bureau in St. Lucia wants the government to intervene to assist aids stranded Haitians to return home. The group has spent the last week in St Lucia. Next, Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic has temporarily suspended the deportation of Haitian immigrants. The moved is in response to the Haitian government efforts to stop illegal immigration across their shared border. Next, opposition groups in Cuba say a dozen of their members were detained over the weekend to prevent protest during yesterday’s anniversary of the shooting down of two civilian planes. This led to a marked deterioration in US, Cuban relations. In the following, the OECS Ambassador to the EU, Mr Edwin Laurent, thinks the European Parliament has the interest of the ACP banana producers at heart despite reports of a proposal to cut ACP share of the EU banana market. Next, the Barbadian Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, says that the Caribbean has to undertake a delicate balancing act to negotiations with Europe and the Americas over trade relations. Next, in Trinidad the member of parliament for Point Fortin, although the centre of a political row, remains defiant today that he would not vacate his seat in the national assembly despite calls from his former party, the opposition People’s National Movement for him to be ejected from parliament. In the last segment, right wing British newspapers are attacking an Afro-American professor selected to present a serious of lectures under a prestigious annual programme. The professor, however, defends her position.