KINGSTON, Jamaica -- Jamaica ordered the expulsion of four Soviet diplomats identified as KGB agents and a Cuban journalist for plotting to kill a Foreign Ministry officer who uncovered their activities, Prime Minister Edward Seaga said.
Seaga also named 25 prominent leftists who stepped up contacts with Cuba, the Soviet Union and Grenada in a 'treacherous scheme' to battle the invasion forces on Grenada. He warned against attempts at destabilizing his 3-year-old government.
'I warn saboteurs that in these dangerous times when the future of our country is at stake we will respond to any act of sabotage with a shattering offensive,' he said in an unexpected and detailed address to Jamaica's Parliament Tuesday night.
'Subversion and treachery,' he said, 'run like a river within our midsts ...,' he said.
Sources close to the prime minister said Seaga was trying to link the measures to events in Grenada and the possible consequences of covert Soviet action. Two weeks ago Seaga said the events in Grenada 'could have happened in Jamaica.'
Jamaica is one of six Caribbean nations that contributed troops to the U.S-led invasion of Grenada.
Foreign Minister Hugh Shearer ordered Soviet Ambassador Dmitri Petrovich to reduce his staff to a size 'consistent with bonafide activities between the two countries,' Seaga said.
The four Soviet diplomats and the Cuban journalist ordered expelled conspired to murder a female protocal officer in the Foreign Ministy who uncovered meetings between ministry officer Joseph Burie and the Soviets 'contrary... to the conduct of foreign affairs officers in the security of our nation,' Seaga said.
Burie, who was under detention for questioning Monda, has denied any involvement in the plot and was dismissed, Seaga said.
The Soviets were identified as Senior First Secretary Viktor Ivanovich Andrianov, First Secretary Oleg Ivanovich Malov, interpreter Andrei Nikiforev and staffer Vladimir Bondarev and ordered to leave the country in 72 hours.
Seaga said all of them were known KGB agents.
He said Prensa Latina Bureau Chief Dario Ibanez had been declared persona non grata and given 48 hours to leave Jamaica. No members of the Cuban news agency will be accredited to work in Jamaica, he said.
Seaga named 25 prominent leftists whom he said had been stepping up contacts with Cuba, the Soviet Union and the Marxist regime of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop of Grenada before and after the coup by his hard-line associates and his death Oct. 19.
One was identified as Dudley Thompson, former foreign minister in the PNP government before Seaga's Oct. 30, 1980 election.
Seaga's predecessor, Michael Manley, greatly expanded contacts with Cuba and the eastern bloc during his eight years of Peoples National Party government.
Seaga said two weeks ago Jamaica had run the risk of a coup against Manley by his hard-line associates, in the same way Bishop was toppled by associates who reportedly were impatient with his moves to create a Marxist society.
