THE ANGUILLA INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT - A.I.M.
South Hill
Anguilla
B.W.I.
July 30, 2001
Government House
Old Ta
Anguilla
FAO, H. E. the Governor Peter Johnstone
Dear Sir:
We the members of the Anguilla Independence Movement hereby voice our
concern with respect to the current relationship between Britain and its
Overseas Territories (OT’s) in general and Anguilla in particular.
In recent weeks the Government of Anguilla and the HM Government has agreed
to undertake a review of the Constitution of Anguilla. In light of this, our
organization has raised a number of issues with regard to the purpose and
the process of the review. In his general overview, the Chairman of the
Constitutional Reform Committee, stated that the following areas of the
Constitution will be reviewed, namely:
- Fundamental Rights and Freedoms
- Composition and form of Legislature
- Composition and form of the Executive
- Belonger status and citizenship
- Civil service and Ombudsman
- The electoral process and the attendant legislation, and
- The appellate court system
The above areas of the constitution to be reformed were selected by the
Chairman prior to the establishment of the committee. We are not satisfied
with the present composition of the committee as it is not representative of
the full political opinion of Anguilla. We feel compelled to raise this
issue because Anguilla is presently at a crossroad in terms of its
development. Despite numerous objections and pleas to the Chairman, there
has been no change to the composition of the committee. For example, HM
loyal Opposition is not represented on the Committee and to the best of our
knowledge has not been consulted on the process.
Secondly, Anguillians are very concerned over the British Overseas
Territories bill 2001. We have not had the opportunity to learn about the
implications and ramifications of the said bill as it relates to among other
things, non-reciprocity, the inalienable right to seek full independence, UK
and EU taxes and legislation etc.
In a letter appearing in the May 4th 2001 issue of St. Helena News sent to
Bishop John Salt of the citizenship commission of St. Helena, from Prime
Minister Tony Blair, it is stated that, “the principles on which the British
Overseas Territories bill will be based, has been settled” and that it “ is
a mater for the lawyers and officials rather than elected members” of the
OT’s. We consider this is a serious breach of the democratic process and an
insult to the elected members and peoples of all the OTC’s, particularly in
light of the British Government’s White Paper, namely, Partnership for
Progress and Prosperity which stresses the need for transparency,
accountability and good governance based on the accepted tenets of
democracy.
We hereby appeal to you to use your good offices to address the issues
raised. We look forward to your speedy response.
Yours respectfully,
A.I.M.
cc: The Honourable Chief Minister
The Honourable Minister of Finance
The Honourable Minister of Social Services
The Honourable Minister of Infrastructure
Chairman of the Constitutional Reform Committee
HM Loyal Opposition
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
UN General Assembly
UN Non-Governmental Organizations Section
UN Special Political and Decolonization
UN Division for ECOSOC Support and Coordination
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
The Chairman of Caricom
The Chairman of OECS
The Anguilla Bar association
The Press
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
|
--------------------Headers --------------------
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from rly-xa02.mx.aol.com (rly-xa02.mail.aol.com
[172.20.105.71]) by air-xa01.mail.aol.com (v80.17) with ESMTP id
MAILINXA17-0815151338; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 15:13:38 -0400
Received: from hotmail.com (f85.law10.hotmail.com [64.4.15.85]) by
rly-xa02.mx.aol.com (v80.17) with ESMTP id
MAILRELAYINXA26-0815151316; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 15:13:16 -0400
Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft
SMTPSVC; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 12:13:15 -0700
Received: from 206.48.59.233 by lw10fd.law10.hotmail.msn.com with
HTTP; Wed, 15 Aug 2001 19:12:53 GMT
X-Originating-IP: [206.48.59.233]
From: "ANGUILLA INDEPENDENCE MOVEMNT - A.I.M."
<[email protected]>
Subject: Letter to the Governor of Anguilla from A.I.M.
Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 19:12:53 +0000
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 15 Aug 2001 19:13:15.0283 (UTC)
FILETIME=[55938630:01C125BE]
|
