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JUNABZ
CONFIDENTIAL
very emotive issue in the Dependent Territories and throughout the Caribbean. Amnesty International are becoming increasingly active and can be expected to stir up opinion in the UK once there is a case on which to focus. It is the existence of capital punishment in the Caribbean DTs and Bermuda which is most likely to cause controversy at home. The problem is not confined to Bermuda where there are four fresh cases of premeditated murder about to begin trial. In Anguilla, opinion in the territory is overwhelmingly in favour of execution. In the Cayman Islands, which have constructed an execution block, there are six cases which could end in the death sentence. In the BVI a murder was commited last month, the result of which could also be a death sentence. Some of these crimes have drugs connections, and regrettably we cannot assume that they represent a temporary phenomenon.
16. We have therefore sought ways which will strengthen Hong Kong's autonomy, and separate off Sir D Wilson's problem so far as is possible from that of the six Dependent Territories. This points to option C in the Governor's telegram. If we decided not to abolish capital punishment in Hong Kong at the same time as moving in Bermuda and elsewhere, we could point to the long-standing practice of commutation in Hong Kong. However, in formulating policy in relation to the Caribbean DTs and Bermuda, Ministers will not wish their freedom of action vis á vis the House of Commons to be unduly fettered by purely Hong Kong considerations. In the view of some FCO departments, abolition in Hong Kong would serve the cause of building up her institutions more strongly before 1997, but we all accept that it is for Sir D Wilson to decide when the time would be ripe, if ever, for such a move.
Robin Garlam
R S GORHAM
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CONFIDENTIAL
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