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The attack took place at Wallilabou Bay. (IWN Photo)
The attack took place at Wallilabou Bay. (IWN Photo)
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The German ambassador to St. Vincent and the Grenadines has written to Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves saying that the “tragic and gruesome” events off Wallilabou Bay last Thursday night are difficult for Germans as well as Vincentians.

A German man, 49-year-old accountant Martin Griff, died when unknown assailants shot him in the throat on board a yacht anchored in the bay.

The captain of the yacht, Reinhold Zeller, 63, survived a gunshot wound to his left shoulder.

The German envoy, Lutz H. Gorgens, who is based in Trinidad and Tobago, said in a note to Gonsalves that he is grateful that the prime minister “reached out personally to the family of Martin Griff and to all other victims immediately, and they could all be flown to Martinique on the same day of 4th March”.

Gonsalves said on radio on Friday that his government was arranging for the visitors to be flown to the French Department, from where they were to fly to Paris and then to Germany.

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Gorgens further said in the diplomatic note: “I wish the police force of St. Vincent and the Grenadines success in bringing the perpetrators of this heinous attack to justice as soon as possible. I also wish the shared grief will contribute to further deepening the solidarity of our nations in good and bad day.”

Gonsalves on Friday expressed “revulsion” at the crime, while Leader of the Opposition, Arnhim Eustace, said Monday that he was “very disturbed” by the development.

Police say they have launched an investigation into the attack.

Murder of German sailor ‘another nail’ in St. Vincent’s ‘economic coffin’

8 replies on “Envoy says attack at Wallilabou difficult for Germany and SVG”

  1. Forget about the countries and the diplomacy, it’s the families that we should feel sorry for, their suffering, their anxiety, their

    The warnings about Walliabou and other such areas have been going on for years, the Gonsalves government under the minister of National Security have failed the tourists and their families and brought disgrace on the people of Saint Vincent .

    How has the minister failed in his duty? by failing to organize the police and coast guard in carrying out proper security of those areas despite warning and notifications of the continuing violence against yacht visitors which has gone on for at least the last 12 years.

    Time resign for Doctor Salt.

    1. Jeannine James says:

      I agree. There is already a heavy rumbling in salt circles that it is the fault of the proprietors of the hotel for not providing adequate security despite making money. That one really knocked me back and almost left me speechless. Vincentians love their salt; they will go all out to protect and defend it.

      Obviously, if the proprietor is “making money”, it is because the yachts keep coming and if the yachts keep coming, how can you turn around and blame the proprietor of the hotel. He obviously has the cost-benefit balance in his sights. In any case, there are no winners here, least of all those who will suffer enduring personal and indescribable loss for no good reason.

  2. C. ben-David says:

    The police can’t even investigate their own backslide to get rid of all the crap they have in the force.

    1. C. ben-David says:

      Should be “backside” but does it really make a difference when we know that today’s police have backslidden in diligence and professionalism from their predecessors 40 years ago?

      1. How true. We don’t even bother calling the police when someone robs us or is trying to break in or other crimes because they are the last to show up at the scene of a crime…unless it involves Drugs, Murder or a celebrity. They are worthless to the middle-and lower class!

  3. C. ben-David says:

    Many, many years ago, Wallilabou Bay was a favourite sea bathing and picnicking destination for our people. What has destroyed the place is decades of illegal but ignored commercial sand mining that I have observed taking place even at high daytime. Little is left of the original beach which has as much course gravel as sand all along the shoreline.

    Though the bay features a 12-room hotel, (overpriced) restaurant, bar, and yacht mooring, the Randolph Russell family-owned facility is of gritty two-star class (and not even listed in our tourism literature), marching in lock step with the deterioration of the beachfront.

    At the best of time, three or four yachts can be seen anchored there. Still, this is higher than at most of our other Leeward coast bays. By contrast, whenever I go to bathe at Little Bay, Mt. Wynne, I usually observe dozens of yachts going back and forth — presumably to drop anchor in the Grenadines (if going south) or in St. Lucia (if going north) — during a two hour stay.

    The Pirates of the Caribbean movie set, an excellent tourist attraction if there ever was one, has been allowed to sink into the sea (as the photo above clearly shows) by a government incapable of or disinterested in maintaining any of our tourism attractions.

    Wallilabou is simply an exemplar of our entire mainland tourist industry.

    This latest killing is indeed another rusty nail in our rotting tourist coffin, a sign that all the international airports in the world will never bring to life the corpse inside.

  4. On 3rd October, 2013, sailing vessel Rainbow was anchored off Union Island at Frigate Island, which is attached to Union Island, part of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. A machete-wielding youth boarded their boat and violently attacked Tina badly chopping her face and shoulder.

    Her husband Mark reacted quickly by grabbing a kitchen knife and stabbed the youth, who subsequently fell off the boat enabling them to pull the anchor up, raise the alert via the VHF radio and get across to Carriacou.

    Ralph mad similar noises about that episode.

    Then we must also remember the blazing yacht off of Buccament where John Edward Gardner a British holiday maker was found dead in the water in suspicious circumstances

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