DR. MITCHELL CALLS ON COARD FOR A CREDIBLE EXPLANATION  

St. George, January 29, 2010 -- Grenada’s Leader of the Opposition, Dr. The Right Hon. Keith Mitchell has called on former Leader of the Grenada Revolutionary Government, Bernard Coard, to provide concrete evidence for the claims that he has made about the disappearance of the bodies of former Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and Members of his Cabinet who were brutally executed at Fort George during the last days of the Revolution.

Dr. Mitchell was speaking after reading an article in the Morning Star newspaper in the United Kingdom in which Coard accused the United States of America and Prime Minister Mitchell’s Administration of obstructing efforts to find the truth about the fate of the missing bodies of Bishop and his colleagues.

Dr. Mitchell categorically denies any such involvement.  Dr. Mitchell emphasized that Coard has continued to implicate others in the disappearance of those bodies and added that Coard should now give a full and credible account of the events that took place in Grenada from October 19th to October 25th, the period that preceded the arrival of United States troops in Grenada.

Statements made by several prominent and credible Grenadians, including those of former Governor General, Sir Paul Scoon, have indicated that Bishop’s body and the bodies of his colleagues were destroyed and disposed of before the United States troops landed in Grenada.  

In the Morning Star article, Mr. Coard claimed that a US military doctor at St. George’s University School of Medicine examined the bodies. Questions asked of the University did not provide any evidence that the University has ever employed a US military doctor for the purpose of performing autopsies.

Dr. Mitchell said that the people of Grenada have moved on but need to have closure of the traumatic events of October 1983.