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Sunday 1st October: 8:30am - Rosie Douglas was found on his bedroom floor having died of an apparent heart attack. His mother seemed to think he died very quickly as he had spoken to Pierre Charles around 7:30 or so. That seems to be the last person he spoke to. At present Portsmouth is in pandemonium and grief.
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ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) - Prime Minister Roosevelt Douglas of Dominica died unexpectedly at his home Sunday morning, and a doctor said a heart attack was the apparent cause. He was 58. Douglas, a former Marxist, was elected in January promising to clean up corruption and diversify the sluggish economy of the Caribbean country of 66,000 people.
Communications Minister Pierre Charles said in a radio statement that he had become acting prime minister.
``His loss is a loss to the people of Dominica,'' said Charles Savarin of the minority Dominica Freedom Party, which had forged a governing alliance with Douglas. He added that the governing coalition remained ``stable.''
The post of prime minister - the head of government in Dominica - will be filled by a Parliament vote, expected sometime this month. Leaders from Douglas' Dominica Labor Party met Sunday to discuss candidates.
Arrangements for a state funeral were pending.
Dr. Gregorio Monterrey, who examined Douglas' body, said the prime minister showed ``symptoms of a heart attack'' but said he could not confirm that as the cause of death until an autopsy is completed. He ruled out foul play.
Officials said Douglas's body was found by his maid in his house in Portsmouth, about 30 miles from the capital, Roseau. Douglas lived alone.
Douglas had returned Saturday from a two-week trip that included visits to the United Nations, Japan and the Olympic Games in Australia.
An aide, Williamson Maroney, said the prime minister had a cough last week but was otherwise in good health.
Douglas was born into Dominica's plantation-owning elite but broke with his family's bourgeois background to help lead the Caribbean's black power movement and fight for Dominica's independence from Britain.
He gained notoriety by participating in a 1973 sit-in by Caribbean students at the computer center of Montreal's Sir George William University. The students charged they were being failed because they were black.
Douglas was jailed for 18 months and deported. He later earned a political science degree from Canada's McGill University.
Douglas founded the Popular Independence Committee in Dominica and briefly became a senator after the island won independence from Britain in 1978. He was dismissed after he invited Cuban troops to help Dominica following 1979's Hurricane David.
Douglas took control of a fractured Labor Party in 1992 and gradually pushed it toward the center. In his campaign for the Jan. 31 elections, Douglas promised to use his international contacts to attract new businesses, develop eco-tourism and lessen Dominica's dependence on banana exports. The Labor Party won 10 of 21 seats and agreed to share power with a former foe, the conservative Dominica Freedom Party, which had won two seats.
Douglas is survived by four children, his mother, five brothers and nine sisters.
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