BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - PRIME MINISTER the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has suggested that the recent fires at the offices of the Venezuelan Embassy and the Organisation of American States (OAS) were politically motivated.
The subliminal suggestion was made earlier this afternoon (Jan. 6) when Prime Minister Douglas addressed the nation on these matters via ZIZ Television and Radio.
Yesterday (Jan. 5), during the early-morning hours, fire fighters had extinguished a fire that had totally destroyed the Venezuelan Embassy on Wigley Avenue, Fortlands, and were earlier successful in preventing a fire at the OAS office on Horsford Road from destroying any major portion of that property.
It has been determined that an arsonist began the fire at the OAS office and it is suspected that that was also the case at the Venezuelan Embassy.
While addressing the nation, the Prime Minister spoke of the fires in relation to a number of incidents involving his political opponents which occurred around the same time span.
“On the evening of Saturday, January 4, 2014, an illegal night-time demonstration was held by PAM politicians and associates, Lindsay Grant, Eugene Hamilton, Timothy Harris, and others. Around midnight that same night, a fire was set at the Organisation of American States Secretariat and extinguished by our nation’s Fire Services.
“A few hours later, the Embassy of Venezuela burned to the ground. And two evenings prior, PAM politicians and associates, Sean Richards, Jonel Powell, Timothy Harris and others rushed and mobbed a social gathering my Deputy Prime Minister and I were attending at a Port Zante business place in an apparent attempt to intimidate either both of us and/or the business persons present.”
Also according to Dr. Douglas, attempts have been made by individuals who are in opposition to his government to weaken the nation and undermine his government by “attacking, in various ways, relations between St. Kitts and Nevis and other nations...
“My Government’s expression of sympathy to the Government of the Republic of China on Taiwan, in response to one of their fishermen being killed by the Government of the Philippines, was repeatedly and publicly opposed and ridiculed by Timothy Harris and other opposition candidates.
“The esteemed Leader and people of Cuba have been publicly ridiculed and Kittitian and Nevisian graduates from Cuban universities charged with attempting to bring so-called communism into the Federation. And now we have the attacks on both the Venezuelan Embassy and the OAS Secretariat. The OAS Representative rightly sees the attempted arson at his building as an attempt to destabilise our Federation, and we all know exactly who in our country has been trying, with zero success, to replicate in St. Kitts and Nevis what, in their words, has been happening in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia”.
The country’s political leader expressed “regret at the aforementioned acts” on behalf of his government and the people of the land and declared that he has “placed every resource at the disposal of our Fire Services and Law Enforcement in their determination to establish responsibility for the afore-mentioned acts at the OAS building and at the Embassy of Venezuela, and to bring them to justice”.
And in condemning the acts, he warned that destruction and mayhem would not be tolerated.
“I warn any and all persons who see it as their bounden duty to create instability that whereas my government fully respects the right of any and all nationals to disagree strongly with any policy of my government. And while we respect the right of the public to protest and to demonstrate once the requisite permits have been granted, my government absolutely will not tolerate any operational shift from disagreement and protest to destruction and mayhem. And any person involved in fomenting mayhem and destruction in this Federation will be dealt with to the full extent of the law.”
All Kittitian and Nevisian nationals were called upon by the Prime Minister to do likewise and condemn “these acts in the strongest possible terms”.
He declared that while there are those who are “energised more by what they are determined to destroy than by what they wish to build”, his government “and the people of this country have demonstrated time and again what, together, we can build. And this we shall continue to do undeterred”.
