The impact of Hurricane Georges on the Caribbean is among items to be considered when the Eleventh Meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community convenes in Grenada on Wednesday October 21, 1998.
CARICOM Chairman, Dr. the Hon. Kenny Anthony, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia will preside over the meeting. Other members of the Bureau are Dr. the Hon. Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, immediate past Chairman; His Excellency Dr. Jules Wijdenbosch, President of Suriname, incoming Chairman and CARICOM Secretary-General, Mr Edwin Carrington.
Hurricane Georges swept through the Caribbean last month claiming more than 500 lives, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless and destroying businesses and infrastructure. CARICOM Member States, Antigua and Barbuda, Haiti and St Kitts and Nevis were among those affected by the hurricane. Relief efforts are underway and the Bureau is expected to receive a status report on both the damage inflicted and the further needs of the affected states.
The Bureau will also be updated on the political and constitutional situation in Guyana and St. Kitts and Nevis.
CARICOM has brokered two agreements, the Herdmanston Accord in January and the St Lucia Statement in July in an attempt to resolve problems in Guyana which arose following the December 15, 1997 General Election. A facilitator, Mr Maurice King QC, has been appointed as required by the St Lucia Statement and has begun his work in Guyana to assist in the implementation of the measures agreed to in both the Statement and the Accord.
Discussions relating to the efforts by Nevis to secede from the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis has to be suspended due to Hurricane Georges. In July 1996, the Heads of Government at their Seventeenth meeting in Barbados considered the situation in the Federation and recommended a Mediation Group which met with the principals on both islands. In submitting its report the Group suggested the establishment of a Commission to examine the future constitutional relationship of the islands. The head of that Commission Sir Fred Phillips reported to last July’s Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in St Lucia and in August issued a full report to the Governor-General of the Federation. Two CARICOM leaders, the Rt Hon. Sir James Mitchell, Prime Minister of St St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Hon. Edison James, Prime Minister of Dominica have visited St Kitts and Nevis since the July Meeting and held talks on both islands.
On August 10 a Referendum was held in Nevis to determine the issue of secession but the secessionists failed to muster the constitutionally required 66.7 per cent.
Other items on the agenda include the status of arrangements for Haiti’s full accession to CARICOM; a progress report on the revision of the Treaty of Chaguaramas and consideration of two items which were mandated to the Bureau by the full Conference the Year 2000 Problem known as the millennium bug or Y2K and an exchange of views on the Caribbean Community in the next decade. It is expected that the views expressed on this latter issue at the recent Youth Assembly of Caribbean Community Parliamentarians held in Nassau, The Bahamas will be placed before the Bureau.
The Bureau was established in October 1992, by the Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, “to initiate proposals, update consensus, mobilise action and secure implementation of CARICOM decisions in an expeditious and informed manner.” That Special Meeting considered the report of the West Indian Commission led by Sir Shridath Ramphal.
