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There will be few in Trinidad and Tobago who will not welcome the end of 2003. For many this was a trauma-filled year which included gang wars, a horrific murder rate, a record number of kidnappings, spiralling road fatalities and a health system that has virtually collapsed on itself. And finally as we come to the end of this truly traumatic year we have had two of our national airline pilots detained by the United States agencies for alleged connections to terrorism. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has correctly condemned as arbitrary, unwarranted and unjustified the detention of two BWIA West Indies Airways pilots by United States authorities over the Christmas holidays, because their names were claimed to have appeared on an alleged suspected terrorist "no fly list."

The pilots — Captain Anthony Wight and First Officer Rawle Joseph — were pointedly met and escorted on arrival at Miami and New York respectively by FBI agents and Immigration officials in full view of BWIA passengers and airport personnel. Regrettably, although official representations have been made to the US Secretary of State (State Department) by Monday of this week, only one pilot had been granted clearance to leave, Captain Wight, who has since returned to TT. Ironically, the United States refused to be a signatory to the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC) claiming that under the provisions of the ICC its military personnel overseas would be subjected to arbitrary detention and trial for alleged offences. Yet the same country has subjected two Trinidad and Tobago nationals of accepted good character to humiliation and arbitrary detention as well as tacit trial by innuendo on the clearly spurious ground that their names had appeared on a "no fly list." No reasonable explanation has been offered, and for all we know the US authorities could have picked their names at random out of the proverbial hat.

The Americans must have appreciated that any detention of BWIA pilots in full glare of passengers and airport terminal personnel would have sent damaging and misleading signals, particularly to US nationals, many of whom have been said to have been influenced by the hysterical so called "war on terror" being bruited about by the US Administration. But it is not only BWIA West Indies Airways and the two pilots who have been hurt by this rash act of paranoia by the United States, but the people and image of Trinidad and Tobago as well. For the Federal Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with the US Department of Immigration has sent uncomfortable and horribly wrong yet cleverly arranged signs to the rest of the world that this country produces and harbours terrorists.

It is a monstrous falsehood, but in the hour by hour, minute by minute induced hysteria of the US authorities, who have tended to see ghosts where clearly none existed, some of the dirt will unfortunately rub off. Trinidad and Tobago's Ministry of Foreign Affairs must be commended on demanding that the pilots' names be removed from the "no fly list," and that BWIA should receive adequate reparation in respect of costs incurred, and that written apologies be issued to the pilots, as well as the Government of Trinidad and Tobago for the national embarrassment. The US has once again demonstrated that it cares only about itself. Tonight, however, we welcome a new year 2004 and hope that it will be for us all a much calmer, more peaceful and crime free year.