Local News

Grenada deputy PM makes stunning denial 29 years later

CARIBUPDATE NEWS SERVICE:  ST GEORGE’S, GRENADA: IN a stunning statement that appears to defy a long established historical fact in Grenada, Deputy Prime Minister Nazim Burke said he was never a member of the Revolutionary Military Council (RMC).

The issue came up during an appearance Wednesday night on the local television show ‘You Decide’ on Channel 6.

When a caller said on the show that Burke could not be trusted because of his involvement with the RMC in the days following the execution of Maurice Bishop in 1983, the Grenada Deputy leader made the stunning denial.

“Your accusation that I was a member of the RMC was false,” Burke told the caller. “You know that I was never a member of a military council.”

When host Byron Campbell sought a follow up asking him of his role as the Minister of Finance following the killing of Bishop, Burke said: “It is false.”

Burke said further: “I was never the junior minister of finance under the revolution.”

People with knowledge of the facts surrounding the time, said Burke were only right on the point of him not being “a junior finance minister under the revolution.”

“Burke was not a junior minister of finance under the revolution; he was the senior minister of finance after the revolution was overthrown,” a person who was a member of the People’s Revolutionary Army told CARIBUPDATE News.

When the formation of the RMC was announced following the death of Bishop in 1983, Burke was named as part of the council and identified as the Minister of Finance.

His role was announced and widely publicized at the time – and every historical record from the time listed him as such.

There also to be no record of a public denial by Burke of his involvement until Wednesday.

Burke, who as Acting Prime Minister last month praised the US invasion which overthrew the murderous junta 29 years ago, has largely avoided speaking about his political role in the aftermath of Bishop’s killing in 1983.

He is the only person who was named as a member of RMC to have been returned to a cabinet in Grenada.

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