The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) heads of government have expressed concern on the situation in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) where Britain resumed direct administration of its overseas territory in August 2009.
The communiqué issued at the end of the 32nd regular meeting of the Conference of Caribbean Heads of Government in St Kitts on Monday noted that “the constitutional reform process had been completed though not to the full satisfaction of the Islanders.”
The TCI has associate membership within the 15-member regional grouping, and citizens there have been demanding an end to British rule and a return to parliamentary democracy.
London resumed direct administration of the affairs of the British Overseas Territory, disbanded the locally elected government and suspended the legislature after a Commission of Inquiry said it found widespread corruption under the administration of former premier Michael Misick.
Misick, who resigned in March 2009, after the commission made its findings public, has called on all Turks and Caicos Islanders, churches and political parties to put differences aside and “unite to fight the common enemy — the British.”
Misick accused London of staging what he termed a “modern-day coup” in the Turks and Caicos Islands while the rest of the world was not watching.
In its communiqué, the regional leaders said that the citizens are expecting that elections will be held in the shortest timeframe possible, “in order to lead to a return to self rule and democratic and representative governance’.
The leaders said that have requested the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) “to continue to monitor the situation closely, in order to keep them informed.”
