PRIME MINISTER OWEN ARTHUR has been accused of insulting the government and people of St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Additionally, his St Vincent counterpart, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, yesterday criticised Arthur for making "blatantly false" accusations that that country was not co-operating in the effort to stem the flow of St Vincent-grown marijuana into Barbados.
In fact, Gonsalves described the comments of Arthur one day earlier as "dead wrong" and "off the wall".
"I am disappointed and saddened by the claims of the Prime Minister of Barbados and I will be writing to him at once, even before returning to my office. He has insulted the government and people of St Vincent and the Grenadines as well as their Prime Minister.
"Owen Arthur's claims are dead wrong, off the wall and blatantly false. I regret having to say this publicly, but I am forced to by the manner, timing and forum chosen by him to engage in such accusations, knowing them to be false," said Gonsalves in a telephone interview with the DAILY NATION.
In a major speech in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, Arthur said the flow of illegal drugs from St Vincent to Barbados, and the criminal networks it was spawning, threatened the country's national security. Noting that 80 per cent of all marijuana entering the country came from St Vincent, he called on Gonsalves to do more to cut production.
Gonsalves, while attending a conference of Heads of Government of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in Dominica, said the "insult" to Vincentians related also to an earlier claim by Barbados that with the collapse of the banana-based economy of St Vincent, Vincentians had turned to expanded marijuana cultivation
for export.
He said that contrary to Arthur's position on the illegal drug trade between the two countries, the Vincentian government was "fully co-operating at the levels of our police and coast guard services as well as through the mechanisms of the Regional Security System (RSS).
"My contention could be verified by the head of the RSS [Barbadian Grantley Watson] and those involved in police and coast guard operations.
"The British representative in St Vincent has also personally expressed to me his satisfaction of my government's efforts to curb the illegal drug trade."
