Montserrat's new Chief Minister accused Britain of deserting it yesterday as a dispute escalated over aid to rebuild from the ashes of its reawakened volcano. Mr David Brandt, who took over on Friday after Mr Bertrand Osborne resigned, said London had a "legal and moral obligation to help" and was "coercing people to leave."
Asked if he felt Montserrat was being deserted by Britain, he said: "I think there is only one conclusion."
Mr Brandt was responding to comments by Britain's International Development Secretary, Ms Clare Short, in the Observer yesterday that the island's administrators would soon be asking for "golden elephants" and accused them of playing "silly political games."
The Chief Minister said Ms Short had frozen all aid to rebuild schools, hospitals, roads and houses.
A spokesman for Ms Short's department admitted long-term aid was on hold "for logistical reasons" but said aid for temporary shelters was still available. "The redevelopment aid is going ahead," the spokesman said.
London has set aside some £45 million for Montserrat.
Mr Brandt said: "Some people have only the clothes on their back. Our case is quite reasonable. All we want is a meaningful choice between leaving and staying, and a chance to start over again."
His comments reflect the belief among islanders that Britain wants all residents out so it can end aid to the population, which has dwindled from 11,000 to 5,000 since the volcano began erupting.
London has been accused of exaggerating the risk by warning of the possibility of a massive eruption threatening nearly the entire island.
Mr Brandt's spokesman, Mr Herman Sargent, said Ms Short's comments were particularly untimely at the height of the hurricane season.
"Some families are already living in appalling conditions in the shelters, with poor sanitation. We have been told about nine storms are on the way, three of them intense, and they can only make things worse".
Eight days ago, the Montserrat Volcanic Observatory warned there was between a 1 and 10 per cent chance of a cataclysmic eruption. London then announced a voluntary evacuation plan of the island, with aid of £2,400 per adult, but few have accepted the offer. Island authorities also expanded the southern exclusion zone to cover two-thirds of the island and gave residents in Salem, the largest remaining town, three hours to leave.
But many defied the order and stayed on to tend fields and businesses rather than move to makeshift shelters further north.
Protests, sometimes violent, at the new barricades marking the start of the enlarged "danger zone", have become common.
PA reports from London:
Ms Short today turned down a request to visit Montserrat and see for herself the residents' plight. She yesterday accused the island's leaders of "sheer irresponsibility", saying "they will be wanting golden elephants next". She then tried to lower the temperature by insisting the situation required cool heads.
The Tories' international development spokesman, Mr Alastair Goodlad, called on Ms Short to apologise for her "insensitive and insulting remarks".
Asked whether she would accept Mr Brandt's invitation to visit the island, Ms Short said: "I'm sorry, we've all got to calm down and start behaving better and I'm not planning to go to possibly get more inaccurate denunciations of what we have been doing."
She conceded yesterday the highlighting of her reference to golden elephants had been "extremely unfortunate", but insisted she had been quoted out of context. "I made a joke about asking for more and more and more . . . it's a misrepresentation of what I was saying."
Mr Goodlad said an apology was needed from Ms short for her "insulting remarks".