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<span style="font-weight: bold">Seaga and the Grenada intervention</span>
KEN CHAPLIN
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Edward Seaga was prime minister of Jamaica during the 1983 invasion of Grenada by forces of the United States of America. Jamaica sent a peacekeeping contingent. Seaga presents a graphic picture of the events leading up to, during and after the invasion in his book, The Grenada Intervention, the Inside Story. Seaga, who went to Grenada during the conflict and was an insider to the development, calls it "intervention", but this column prefers to call it invasion.
Seaga captures the controversial period during which Prime Minister Eric Gairy, his Grenada United Party and his violent mongoose gang ruled the country; the politics of Maurice Bishop, radical leftist leader of the New Jewel Movement, the ousting of Gairy and the acceptance of the "revolutionary result" by Jamaica's prime minister Michael Manley and his quick recognition of the new government.
Seaga discusses Grenada's deepening link to the growing list of Marxists in the Caribbean, establishment of arguably the most powerful radio station in the English-speaking Caribbean, Radio Free Grenada, with a range that enabled it to transmit to other small countries with a mission to broadcast radical socialism. The author writes that to implement the programme an intense ideological promotion, Radio Free Grenada, hired some of the most committed leftists of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (now defunct). I happen to know that this is true. After the American forces bombed Radio Free Grenada during the invasion, I became concerned about the safety of my respected colleague, Patrick Smikle, who was working with the station and I inquired about his safety. I was told that he was safe and that Radio Free Grenada was mobile.
The former prime minister then deals with the formation of the Revolutionary Military Council headed by General Hudson Austin, the killing of Bishop and others, the involvement of Cuba and the large number of guns and the ammunition captured. These include 5,516,600 rounds of ammunition; 134,486 rounds of heavy ammunition; 2,174 grenades; 9,756 rifles; 359 machine guns; 200 heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft guns; recoilless and anti-tank weapons; mortars and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The question was, what was a small country of 111,000 people doing with so much fire power? According to the author, the intent was clearly to use Grenada as a central point for rallying the leftist forces of the other six small islands of the Commonwealth Caribbean.
There seems to be some justification for this conclusion. I write this because of an experience I had in 1986 while serving as information adviser to the Prime Minister of Grenada, Herbert Blaise. One day my barber, who claimed to have been a chauffeur to Bishop, told me that if Bishop was not killed he would control some of the islands. What I found amusing was that every so often the barber would look out of the door of the barber shop, apparently to see if anyone was listening.
What is now necessary is for someone to write a book of the trauma suffered by thousands of Grenadians after Bishop was overthrown. For example, in 1986 a Grenadian told me the story of a girl who was a strong supporter of Bishop and the NJM. She worked in a community about 30 miles from St George's, the capital. Her mother was accustomed to meet her at a bus stop in St George's whenever she arrived there from work. On the first day after the revolution the girl's mother went to meet her, but the girl did not arrive. On the second and third days, the same thing happened. The mother was later told her daughter had been killed but for several months afterwards she was still travelling to the square in the hope she would find her daughter.
Seaga wrote, "The fact that the intervention restored peace and stability should be considered a red-letter day for Caricom countries since the alternative could have exposure of several small and vulnerable islands in the Caricom group to a similar tyrannical episode in their history. That being the case, the Grenada intervention of October 25, 1983, the anniversary has established itself as a historical Caricom day which should not be allowed to pass. Yet the anniversary of this epic event was ignored because history is so easily forgotten." He is right.
Now that we have read one side of the story, someone like Professor Trevor Munroe who was leader of the then communist Workers Party of Jamaica and at the time an adviser to Bishop, should present the other side. He would have no problem because he is a capable writer. I am urging Dr Munroe to undertake this task in the same way I impressed upon Mr Seaga to write the book. Some of those in Jamaica who participated in the event did not forget. A small group met at the residence of Colonel Ken Barnes on October 25 last year and recalled some of the activities. Barnes and Seaga himself gave a blow-by-blow account of what transpired.
I congratulate Seaga for writing the book and dedicating it to Barnes, commanding officer of the Jamaica Defence Force contingent "involved in suppressing the 1983 coup uprising in Grenada and thereafter, in the restoration of democracy". Barnes died recently but his name lives on as an officer and a gentleman.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Seaga and the Grenada intervention</span>
KEN CHAPLIN
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Edward Seaga was prime minister of Jamaica during the 1983 invasion of Grenada by forces of the United States of America. Jamaica sent a peacekeeping contingent. Seaga presents a graphic picture of the events leading up to, during and after the invasion in his book, The Grenada Intervention, the Inside Story. Seaga, who went to Grenada during the conflict and was an insider to the development, calls it "intervention", but this column prefers to call it invasion.
Seaga captures the controversial period during which Prime Minister Eric Gairy, his Grenada United Party and his violent mongoose gang ruled the country; the politics of Maurice Bishop, radical leftist leader of the New Jewel Movement, the ousting of Gairy and the acceptance of the "revolutionary result" by Jamaica's prime minister Michael Manley and his quick recognition of the new government.
Seaga discusses Grenada's deepening link to the growing list of Marxists in the Caribbean, establishment of arguably the most powerful radio station in the English-speaking Caribbean, Radio Free Grenada, with a range that enabled it to transmit to other small countries with a mission to broadcast radical socialism. The author writes that to implement the programme an intense ideological promotion, Radio Free Grenada, hired some of the most committed leftists of the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (now defunct). I happen to know that this is true. After the American forces bombed Radio Free Grenada during the invasion, I became concerned about the safety of my respected colleague, Patrick Smikle, who was working with the station and I inquired about his safety. I was told that he was safe and that Radio Free Grenada was mobile.
The former prime minister then deals with the formation of the Revolutionary Military Council headed by General Hudson Austin, the killing of Bishop and others, the involvement of Cuba and the large number of guns and the ammunition captured. These include 5,516,600 rounds of ammunition; 134,486 rounds of heavy ammunition; 2,174 grenades; 9,756 rifles; 359 machine guns; 200 heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft guns; recoilless and anti-tank weapons; mortars and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The question was, what was a small country of 111,000 people doing with so much fire power? According to the author, the intent was clearly to use Grenada as a central point for rallying the leftist forces of the other six small islands of the Commonwealth Caribbean.
There seems to be some justification for this conclusion. I write this because of an experience I had in 1986 while serving as information adviser to the Prime Minister of Grenada, Herbert Blaise. One day my barber, who claimed to have been a chauffeur to Bishop, told me that if Bishop was not killed he would control some of the islands. What I found amusing was that every so often the barber would look out of the door of the barber shop, apparently to see if anyone was listening.
What is now necessary is for someone to write a book of the trauma suffered by thousands of Grenadians after Bishop was overthrown. For example, in 1986 a Grenadian told me the story of a girl who was a strong supporter of Bishop and the NJM. She worked in a community about 30 miles from St George's, the capital. Her mother was accustomed to meet her at a bus stop in St George's whenever she arrived there from work. On the first day after the revolution the girl's mother went to meet her, but the girl did not arrive. On the second and third days, the same thing happened. The mother was later told her daughter had been killed but for several months afterwards she was still travelling to the square in the hope she would find her daughter.
Seaga wrote, "The fact that the intervention restored peace and stability should be considered a red-letter day for Caricom countries since the alternative could have exposure of several small and vulnerable islands in the Caricom group to a similar tyrannical episode in their history. That being the case, the Grenada intervention of October 25, 1983, the anniversary has established itself as a historical Caricom day which should not be allowed to pass. Yet the anniversary of this epic event was ignored because history is so easily forgotten." He is right.
Now that we have read one side of the story, someone like Professor Trevor Munroe who was leader of the then communist Workers Party of Jamaica and at the time an adviser to Bishop, should present the other side. He would have no problem because he is a capable writer. I am urging Dr Munroe to undertake this task in the same way I impressed upon Mr Seaga to write the book. Some of those in Jamaica who participated in the event did not forget. A small group met at the residence of Colonel Ken Barnes on October 25 last year and recalled some of the activities. Barnes and Seaga himself gave a blow-by-blow account of what transpired.
I congratulate Seaga for writing the book and dedicating it to Barnes, commanding officer of the Jamaica Defence Force contingent "involved in suppressing the 1983 coup uprising in Grenada and thereafter, in the restoration of democracy". Barnes died recently but his name lives on as an officer and a gentleman.
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