Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, Mr Edwin Carrington has spoken out in favour of CARICOM’s continued support to the healing process in Guyana.
On the conclusion of a one-day visit by the Chairman of CARICOM, Dr. the Hon. Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada, the Secretary-General said the last thing anyone wanted to see happen in Guyana was a breakdown of the society as has been experienced in certain other countries.
In thanking all those who are involved in the process, the Secretary General stressed that they had helped to pull Guyana back from what could have been a rather disastrous step. He praised the three-man CARICOM Mission of Sir Henry Forde, (Chairman), Sir Shridath Ramphal and Sir Alister McIntyre which held initial discussions with officials on all sides of the political fence resulting in the signing of an agreement – the Herdmanston Accord – by the leaders of the two main political parties, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic and the People’s National Congress.
He stressed that Guyana was crucial to the Community and especially to the Secretariat and “we have a personal commitment to this process”.
The Secretary-General also noted that the CARICOM Chairman, by his presence in Guyana at that time, had given a “personal demonstration of Community solidarity with the effort of the Guyanese people”.
Finally he emphasised that the media has a crucial role to play in the process.
“In this exercise the decisive role is probably going to be played by the media. It is the way you portray what is happening, what develops in this process, communicate it to your population feedback their views to the leadership, including the Community, that can prove critical . To the extent that you do this accurately, sympathetically and with the best interest of Guyana at heart, I think that we have a chance, a very good chance to come out of this with some pride”.
The Chairman added that he was particularly proud of the fact that the Region has been the one that has been called upon, and was the one playing this role in the Guyana problem at this particular time. “It is a proud moment for CARICOM and for the Region,” Dr. Mitchell said.
