Dominicans pay last respects to former PM

Saturday, January 17, 2004

ROSEAU, Dominica: Hundreds of Dominicans converged on the state house in Roseau today to have a final glimpse and say farewell to their late Prime Minister Pierre Charles who died last week. 

Government ministers, opposition MPs, senior public officials and the diplomatic corps on the island also viewed the 49-year-old leader's body.

Charles, who headed the coalition administration from October 2000 until his death in office, will receive a state funeral in his home town of Grand Bay tomorrow, beginning at 1:30pm East Caribbean Time (17:30 GMT). 

Among the official mourners will be Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. 

Five Caricom prime ministers will also be in Dominica to pay their last respects to their colleague who died of acute heart failure.

The two Presidents and five Prime Ministers are among 90 foreign officials and representatives expected in Dominica for tomorrow's funeral of the island's sixth Prime Minister, and the second to die in office in just over three years. Rosie Douglas died suddenly in office on October 1, 2000.

The permanent secretary in the local foreign affairs ministry announced today that president Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti is scheduled to be part of the mourners.

Last week, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela confirmed that will join the Prime Ministers of Barbados, Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Lucia and Antigua and Barbuda in Dominica to mourn the loss of the Dominican leader.

The British Virgin Islands' chief minister and other Caricom representatives will also be here for the funeral. 

Dominica's ambassador to the UN, Crispin Gregoire is down to deliver the eulogy of his childhood friend and political colleague. Both men were political activists here in the 1970s and 1980s. 

Throughout the day, Dominicans from all walks of life poured into the state house to say good-bye to the man they lovingly called Pierro.

Some wept openly, some wept silently, while others spoke nothing as they strode past the late PM's body that laid in state for the entire day.  

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