Nevis not giving into pressure
Publication: Weekend Nation
Date: Fri, May 9, 1997
Page: 22
Byline: Terry Ally
A SERIES of diplomatic manoeuvrings is in the offing to persuade Nevis against breaking its two-state confederacy with St. Kitts.
The renewed efforts came at the Caricom Heads of Government meeting at Sam Lord's Castle where Caricom sources revealed that the situation in Nevis had become "even more grave" since the Heads last met in July 1996.
Chairman of Caricom, Prime Minster Percival Patterson of Jamaica, said that the mood of Nevis' Premier Vance Amory was "very adamant" that his tiny island of 8 000 people will secede.
Reports also suggested that the mood of the people of Nevis is for secession and that Amory, who earlier met with Patterson, had refused to meet other envoys from the Caricom chairman.
The Heads of Government again mandated Prime Minister Lester Bird of Antigua to mediate on behalf of Caricom and to raise the subject, as a matter of priority, when the Summit of the Heads of Government of the Organisation of East Caribbean States (OECS) meet later this month in St. Kitts.
"We expect that he'll be able, on the basis of contacts which are being made with both sides, to bring to the attention of colleague Heads in the Eastern Caribbean, what initiatives can be undertaken by them to deal with the question of secession by Nevis," said Patterson.
Caricom sources said the matter was worrisome, not only to the Caribbean, but also, to the international community.
If efforts at the level of Caricom and the OECS fail, then it was likely that the United Nations and the Organisation of American States would get involved to persuade Amory that the present course of action would be a "slow form of (political) suicide".
The region thought there might have been a reprieve after Amory failed to get the required two-thirds majority in recent Nevis elections, but the premier stunned the Caribbean by announcing that he had entered into an alliance with a political opponent which meant that the island can start proceedings to break away from St. Kitts.