Black Immigrant Daily News

Former LIAT workers in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) may soon be paid some sort of benefit for the loss of their jobs. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES.

Prime minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves gave an indication of this when he spoke on the Issues at Hand Programme onWE FM on Sunday, July 10.

“I asked Gaston [Browne, prime minister of Antigua/Barbuda] to ask the administrator for the final numbers for St Vincent and the Grenadines workers for us to see what we could do.”

The more highly paid LIAT workers were stationed in Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados. St Vincent and the Grenadines generally had office staff.

While speaking about LIAT’s indebtedness, Gonsalves said he also asked the Antigua/Barbuda prime minister “to get the indebtedness for small taxi operators, hoteliers and people who had purchased tickets.”

In relation to tickets which were bought, LIAT owes customers “something like EC$10 million,” Gonsalves said.

This money is yet to be refunded to customers of the now insolvent airline.

While there be no legal liability for LIAT, the prime minister spoke of it’s moral consideration.

“What about the farmer in Park Hill who bought a ticket to attend his daughter’s wedding in Tortola, but LIAT couldn’t travel and that person ain’t get back their money?”

The former LIAT Chairman also asked about the airline’s moral responsibility to small hotels, restaurants and taxi services which are still owed by LIAT 1974 Ltd.

“If you have moral responsibility, the moral responsibility has to be to everybody whom LIAT owes,” Gonsalves stressed.

He added that if there were a legal claim, there are some pilots who would get in excess of five hundred thousand dollars.

Gonsalves charged that some former LIAT pilots, engineers, flight attendants and other workers were “highly irresponsible” and caused the airline to lose a lot of money.

The prime minister spoke of strikes, delays and other industrial action which caused LIAT to lose cash, while having to make refunds.

Recently, the Leeward Islands Airlines Pilots Association (LIALPA) expressed disappointment in statements made about airline workers by Gonsalves in relation to LIAT.

The pilots said in a press release that it was unfortunate that Gonsalves is chastising workers “in their time of need.”

LIALPA said that blaming workers for LIAT’s failure was “inaccurate and a cheap shot.”

With not much private sector interest, the shareholder governments had to carry LIAT’s weight until became insolvent and stopped flying.

“We were searching for private sector people, we couldn’t get any,” Gonsalves recalled.

In the present plans for air transportation, the SVG prime minister said “all the governments have to be involved, bear the burden so that it becomes easier.”

“Nobody should be freeloading,” he cautioned.

Plans for a regional carrier were discussed at the recent meeting of Heads of Government of Caricom in Suriname.

A discussion had taken place there between the leaders of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia, Barbados and Guyana.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Un ancien préfet rwandais, Laurent Bucyibaruta, a été condamné mardi soir par la cour d’assises de Paris à vingt ans de réclusion criminelle pour complicité de génocide, plus de vingt-huit ans après l’extermination des Tutsi au Rwanda.

L’ancien haut fonctionnaire, 78 ans, a été acquitté en tant qu’auteur de génocide mais reconnu coupable en tant que complice de génocide et de crimes contre l’humanité pour quatre massacres, à l’issue de près de onze heures de délibéré.

Laurent Bucyibaruta, qui comparaissait libre sous contrôle judiciaire depuis le 9 mai et qui souffre de pathologies multiples, passera la nuit en prison. Se déplaçant avec une canne, il a été escorté par des gendarmes peu après l’énoncé du verdict.

L’accusation avait réclamé à son encontre la réclusion criminelle à perpétuité, le considérant complice d’un massacre de Tutsi et auteur de quatre autres dans sa préfecture de Gikongoro.

Cette région du sud du Rwanda a été l’une des plus touchées par le génocide qui a fait au moins 800.000 morts dans le pays entre avril et juillet 1994, selon l’ONU.

La cour a acquitté Laurent Bucyibaruta des accusations de génocide et de crimes contre l’humanité commis à la paroisse de Kibeho le 14 avril 1994, ainsi que celles concernant les exécutions de prisonniers tutsi, dont trois prêtres, à la prison de Gikongoro.

Le ministère public avait requis l’acquittement pour ces derniers faits.

Les magistrats et les jurés l’ont reconnu complice de génocide et de crimes contre l’humanité pour les massacres de l’école en construction de Murambi et des paroisses de Cyanika et Kaduha, qui ont fait quelque 75.000 morts le 21 avril 1994.

Laurent Bucyibaruta est également condamné pour complicité de ces crimes pour des exécutions d’élèves à l’école Marie Merci de Kibeho, et celles commises lors de rondes et à des barrières.

Concernant les faits commis à la paroisse de Kibeho, “les premiers de toute la série”, la cour a considéré qu’il n’y avait “pas les éléments suffisants permettant de dire qu’il avait donné des instructions”, ni qu’il savait alors “toute l’ampleur du plan génocidaire” en œuvre.

Laurent Bucyibaruta a dix jours pour faire appel. Ses avocats n’ont pas souhaité réagir.

– “Mi-figue mi-raisin” –

“Vingt ans… J’ai l’impression que c’est une peine mi-figue mi-raisin”, a réagi Alain Gauthier, président du Collectif des parties civiles pour le Rwanda (CPCR).

“C’est un choc, en même temps il est condamné pour complicité de génocide donc je ne vais pas non plus tergiverser”, a commenté Dafroza Gauthier, qui traque avec son époux les génocidaires présumés au Rwanda.

La défense avait demandé à la cour de faire “le choix du courage” en acquittant un fonctionnaire “isolé et sans force” pour empêcher les massacres dans sa préfecture de Gikongoro.

Pendant les neuf semaines de débats, Laurent Bucyibaruta n’a cessé de minimiser son importance dans la chaîne hiérarchique et celle des moyens à sa disposition pour empêcher les tueries, répétant qu’il avait été “dépassé par les événements”.

Il a été “un rouage incontournable sans lequel la machine meurtrière n’aurait pas pu être mise en œuvre”, avaient estimé les avocates générales dans leur réquisitoire. S’il “n’a tué aucune personne”, l’ex-fonctionnaire “a sur lui le sang de toutes les victimes tuées à Gikongoro”.

Dans ses derniers mots à la cour, l’accusé a martelé n’avoir “jamais été dans le camp des tueurs” et a exprimé ses “remords” de ne pas avoir “pu sauver” les Tutsi de sa préfecture.

Laurent Bucyibaruta avait fui le Rwanda après la fin du génocide, le 23 juillet 1994. Il vit en France depuis 1997, dans la banlieue de Troyes.

Il était visé par une enquête depuis 2000.

Le Tribunal pénal international pour le Rwanda (TPIR) avait un temps réclamé Laurent Bucyibaruta, mais il s’était finalement dessaisi au profit des juridictions françaises.

Il était le plus haut responsable rwandais jamais jugé en France pour des crimes liés au génocide des Tutsi.

asl-cob/pa/cbn/ial/

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Young Jamaica, the youth arm of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), challenges the People’s National Party (PNP), and its president to offer the Jamaican people an alternative relief plan, “one which not only treats with Jamaica’s current economic situation but accounts for future financial stability”.

“Instead of the PNP’s irresponsible and impulsive proposals, the JLP Andrew Holness-led government has put forward a measured, targeted and thoughtful aid packages over the last two years…,” Young Jamaica said in a press release on Monday.

“The latest CARE components will provide a combined $2.7-billion social intervention package. Special focus was also given to the youth and elderly. Over half a billion dollars will be allocated to pensioners at the bottom of the income ladder.

“The GOJ will also be providing J$1.789 billion in back-to-school grants in addition to additional contributions to those on PATH,” the group noted.

According to Young Jamaica, the PNP continues to prove that it has “absolutely no idea how to govern the people of Jamaica responsibly and ethically”.

The group said that the PNP had “repeatedly” and “impulsively promoted irresponsible and fiscally unsound policies”.

Young Jamaica said it is “high time for [the PNP] to recognise that the politics they are attempting to play is a relic of a past” Jamaica does not want to return.

“This JLP administration has introduced transformational systematic electronic direct transfer of relief funds, aligned with international best practices, for the people of Jamaica.

“This has never been done before by any other administration,” the press release quoted Young Jamaica President Rohan Walsh.

Communications Director of Young Jamaica Rodain Richardson said: “The PNP would like for us to resile to the 1990s, 2010 and 2013, when Jamaicans were faced with economic pressures, uncertain times and when the country suffered catastrophic economic affairs.

“We have come too far as a people and have worked too hard as a country for anyone to trick us and tell us to run wid it, we cannot go back to a time like that.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

by Real News

A 52-year-old Weirs man was robbed of his vehicle on Friday, July 8, in an area close to the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds.

The man reported to the Parham Police Station that he had gone to assist a friend who had run out of gas on Old Parham Road, and then headed back home via the Sir Sydney Walling Highway.

He says he stopped to relieve himself at about 1:15 a.m. and was accosted by a masked man dressed in all-black.

Reportedly, the bandit pointed a gun at the Weirs resident, ordering that he not move and demanding money.

Further, the man says he was told to lie on the ground, following which the masked gunman drove off in his black 1998 Mitsubishi Pajero jeep, Registration No. A32263.

Investigations into the robbery are ongoing.

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