Attorney General and Justice Minister Dorothy Lightbourne yesterday declared that the Government would not blunder carelessly in its execution of the Extradition Treaty, as the previous administration did in 1992.

Lightbourne was making her most fulsome response on the matter of the United States' extradition request for west Kingston strongman Christopher 'Dudus' Coke.

In her statement yesterday, she made reference to the extradition fiasco that resulted in Richard 'Storyteller' Morrison being carted off to the US in contravention of his constitutional rights.

"It is to be recalled that, as a result of the hasty and precipitous action of a former minister of justice, a Jamaican national was improperly and illegally extradited to the US in 1992," Lightbourne declared.

The attorney general slammed Opposition Spokesman on National Security Peter Bunting, who on Wednesday accused the Gover-nment of failing to respond to the US request after more than eight weeks.

Bunting claimed in a release that there appeared to be a stand-off between the Government and the US on the matter.

However, yesterday the justice minister hit back, stressing that the Government has refrained from making any detailed public comment on the extradition request. She said this was in keeping with established convention.

However, Lightbourne said recent statements by the Opposition warranted an appropriate response.

Untrue

The attorney general dismissed as "completely untrue", Bunting's suggestion that the Government has failed to respond to the extradition request by the US government.

"The Jamaican Government has, indeed, responded through the channels laid down in the Extradition Treaty between Jamaica and the United States and there is ongoing communication between the authorities of both states," Lightbourne said.

Asserting that the extradition of any person is not an automatic process, she said it was subject to due consideration by the minister and due process through the courts and must be in accordance with the provisions of both the treaty and the Extradition Act of Jamaica.

"In the instant case, there are legal and constitutional issues which are the subject of correspondence between the Jamaican and US authorities, the details of which it would be inappropriate to disclose while these issues are being deliberated," Lightbourne argued.

She pointed out that, despite its considerable efforts, the then Government was unable to secure the return of Morrison to redress the 1992 breach.

"The error was compounded when the citizen was tried in the US in a manner which further breached the provisions of the treaty," Lightbourne said.

The attorney general said the Jamaican Government suspended extradition proceedings for three years and only resumed in 1995 after it received specific assurances from the US Justice Department that the provisions of the treaty would be faithfully observed.

Lightbourne said the current Opposition should be advised to take careful note of an undertaking given by its then minister of national security and justice, K.D. Knight, in an address to Parliament on June 6, 1995.

At that time, Knight reportedly said: "I wish to give the assurance that my ministry will do everything in its power to ensure that the extradition process in Jamaica is carried out in a manner which is faithful not only to our inter-national obligations but also to the fundamental concepts of justice and fairness as enshrined in the Constitution."

On Wednesday, Bunting said the People's National Party was clear in its view that the country's standing in the international community, combined with the appearance of the abandonment of constitutional government, out-weighed any considerations that could explain the Government's inaction on a matter "with such far-reaching implications for Jamaica's economic future and our status as a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law".