|
Caribbean Islands National Security
The focus of security concerns on the islands has changed over
the years. During the Labour administration, which ended in 1980,
the possible secession of Nevis and Anguilla was considered the
primary threat to security. British paratroopers had to be
dispatched to Anguilla in 1969 to keep order during a period of
secessionist unrest; nevertheless, Anguilla did secede that year
(see British Dependencies: British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, and
Montserrat, this ch.). Kittitian forces were more successful at
discouraging such activity on Nevis because of its geographical
proximity. According to some members of the PAM, personnel of the
regular Defence Force and police were routinely employed by the
Labour government to intimidate political opponents on Nevis.
After the advent of the PAM/NRP government and the movement
toward independence as a two-island federation, secession became
regarded as less of a threat to security. Accordingly, the regular
Defence Force maintained by the Labour government was abolished in
1981. The Volunteer Defence Force was retained, but it did not
appear to be active because of the lack of any serious external
threat to the islands. Some former Defence Force personnel were
absorbed into the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force
(RSCNPF); Defence Force weaponry and other equipment was
transferred to the RSCNPF. Weaponry unsuited to day-to-day police
work, such as semiautomatic small arms, was adopted for use mainly
by the RSCNPF's Tactical Unit and, later, the Special Service Unit
(SSU).
In the late 1980s, the RSCNPF appeared to number about 300,
including the 80-member SSU. The RSCNPF was headed by the
commissioner of police, whose subordinates included a deputy
commissioner and a superintendent of police. The appointment,
discipline, and removal of police officers was regulated by the
Police Service Commission, a five-member board appointed by the
governor general on the advice of the prime minister. Initial
recruit training was conducted at the Police Training Complex at
Pond's Pasture, Basseterre. The mission of the RSCNPF was varied
and included immigration and firefighting duties in addition to
standard police work. The coast guard, administered by the harbor
police, was organizationally integrated into the RSCNPF. The sole
coast guard vessel was donated by the United States in October
1985. In addition, coast guard personnel received some training in
the United States. SSU personnel received on-island instruction
from a United States Army military training team. The United States
was also reported to have supplied small arms, ammunition, and
trucks to the SSU. Other sources of equipment donations to the
RSCNPF were Britain, which provided radio equipment, and South
Korea, which donated automobiles and pickup trucks.
St. Kitts and Nevis was not an original signatory to the 1982
Memorandum of Understanding, which laid the groundwork for the RSS.
Nonetheless, membership in the system was extended to St. Kitts and
Nevis in early 1984 after it achieved full independence. As an RSS
member, St. Kitts and Nevis--or, more specifically, its SSU--has
participated in a number of regional military exercises with
Caribbean, British, and United States forces. The Simmonds
government has been a strong supporter of the RSS, particularly
since the Grenada intervention (although technically that was not
an RSS operation). Although the opposition Labour Party has not
criticized the RSS publicly or advocated withdrawal from the
system, it has tried to portray Simmonds's support as an effort to
shore up his rule through the threat of military action against his
opponents. The PAM has responded to these allegations by comparing
Labour leader Moore and his followers to that faction of the
Grenadian People's Revolutionary Government that murdered Maurice
Bishop and several of his ministers on October 19, 1983, and
plunged Grenada into chaos.
From the government's perspective, the most likely source of
social and political unrest appeared to be agitation by the Labour
Party. PAM leaders and publications have quoted Moore as
threatening the prime minister and calling for the extralegal
assumption of power by his own followers. Even if true, however,
these statements would appear to have been more in the nature of
rhetorical excesses than genuine calls to revolution. There was no
indication in the late 1980s of significant popular support in St.
Kitts and Nevis for politically motivated violence against the
PAM/NRP government.
Generally speaking, the society of St. Kitts and Nevis was
quite open and free in terms of political and civil rights.
According to the ratings assigned various countries in an article
by Raymond A. Gastil in the periodical Freedom at Issue,
published by the research and monitoring group Freedom House in New
York, St. Kitts and Nevis in 1985 and 1986 was a free society with
a fully competitive electoral process, freedom of the press, an
impartial judiciary, and a general lack of politically motivated
repression. Representatives of the PAM/NRP government have cited
these ratings frequently as a riposte to charges of abuse of power
leveled by the opposition.
* * *
Although there are few comprehensive sources on St. Kitts and
Nevis, background information on its social development may be
found in Bonham C. Richardson's Caribbean Migrants and
Edward L. Cox's Free Coloreds in the Slave Societies of St.
Kitts and Grenada, 1763-1833. Health, education, and population
data are available in the Pan American Health Organization's
Health Conditions in the Americas 1981-1984. Major works
dealing with economic background and development include Carleen
O'Loughlin's Economic and Political Change in the Leeward and
Windward Islands, Peter D. Fraser and Paul Hackett's
Caribbean Economic Handbook, and the World Bank's St.
Christopher and Nevis Economic Report. Current economic data
are presented in annual reports prepared by the CDB and the ECCB.
Political studies on St. Kitts and Nevis are equally scarce,
perhaps as a result of the nation's brief history as an independent
state. The St. Christopher and Nevis Independence Magazine,
19th September 1983, and 1986 Year in Review,
official publications, present good snapshots of the country.
Current political issues and concerns on the islands are reflected
in the newspapers published by PAM (Democrat) and the
opposition Labour Party (Labour Spokesman), as well as in
reporting by the Caribbean News Agency and periodicals with a
regional focus, such as Latin America Regional Reports:
Caribbean. (For further information and complete citations, see Bibliography.)
Data as of November 1987
|
