ACCUSED DRUG LORD'S THREAT RATTLES ST. KITTS

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis - It was hell week in paradise - not just
for the 280 veterinary students from the United States who faced their
finals here under an accused drug lord's reported death threat, but for
many of the 35,000 people who depend on those Americans for the money they
pour into these islands' economy.

Parents panicked. Several dozen students at the Ross University School of
Veterinary Medicine simply fled St. Kitts after the State Department
announced late last month that local businessman Charles "Little Nut"
Miller had threatened to have them killed if the U.S. government succeeded
in its effort to extradite him to Miami.

Some reportedly feared that Miller - who told local police that he had made
no threats and that he is a legitimate businessman in charge of a chicken
distributorship, a hotel, a disco and several other businesses here - had
secretly videotaped them at the disco in the weeks before the threats were
revealed.

Others just weren't taking any chances.

Leases were broken. Bars and restaurants were nearly empty. Soft-drink and
gasoline sales were slumping.

The government here launched an all-out damage-control campaign this month
to restore the image of an otherwise peaceful twin-island nation that U.S.
and Caribbean law-enforcement officials say has become a case study in how
the region's increased cocaine trade can destabilize island states.

"Charles Miller cannot bring down my government," Prime Minister Denzil
Douglas found himself insisting to a small group of U.S. journalists.

Douglas said his government is working closely with U.S. authorities to
protect the Ross University students and to pursue the extradition case
against Miller and two other Kittsians.

A St. Kitts magistrate ruled against extradition for Miller, who is under
indictment on cocaine-trafficking charges in South Florida; the decision is
on appeal.

"We continue to view (Miller's) threat very, very seriously," Douglas said.

But the prime minister also used the news conference to deny persistent
opposition accusations here that Miller and his two associates are key
supporters of Douglas' ruling Labor Party and that they have become a law
unto themselves on the island.

Finally, Douglas stressed - and U.S. authorities confirmed - that Miller's
extradition does not appear imminent.

"The tension, anxiety and stress" on the Ross campus, he said, "is now more
from their (final) exams than the threat from Miller."

However, repercussions from the State Department's report have continued to
rip through St. Kitts' fragile economy.

Much of the anger here has appeared to be not at Washington, as it has been
in the past, but at Miller himself.

Local business people and Kittsians on the street say the U.S. students are
merely Miller's latest target. They tell of a man who has terrorized the
island in the years since he slipped away from the United States'
witness-protection program and came home - a man described in court records
in the United States as a charismatic drug dealer turned U.S. informant
turned drug dealer again.

The Los Angeles Times reported last December that court documents and civil
records show - and U.S. officials confirm - that Miller is Cecil Connor, a
St. Kitts-born drug dealer and gang member who worked as a political
enforcer in the slums of Jamaica; who smuggled cocaine and marijuana into
Florida, New York and California; and who attended assassinations in the
United States by a brutal Jamaican drug gang known as the Shower Posse.

The gang sprayed its victims with machine-gun fire, often maiming or
killing bystanders.

Miller, as Connor, testified as a star witness for U.S. federal prosecutors
in Florida in January 1989, winning himself a new identity in the
witness-protection program.

U.S. officials confirmed that Miller dropped out of the program and he
returned to the island, and records on file at the St. Kitts public
registry show that he legally changed his name from Cecil Connor to Charles
Miller in July 1991.

Four years later, Miller was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami for
allegedly conspiring to use an air-cargo service to import hundreds of
pounds of Colombian cocaine through St. Kitts into the United States.

Miller has defended his reputation.

"We give out thousands of dollars to charities and give more to local
groups than most local organizations," Miller has said. "We help the poor
people to pay their bills."

St. Kitts remains an underdeveloped land heavily dependent upon U.S.
tourism and institutions such as Ross University.

Local business and religious leaders agree that the twin islands remain far
safer than most U.S. cities and still rank among the safest in the Caribbean.

However, they and government officials acknowledge that, in tourism,
perception often is more significant than reality.

Furthermore, the target of the threats - a university that opened its doors
here 15 years ago - has been one of the most important engines for the
local economy.

Warren Ross, the university's New York City-based vice president, said that
fewer than one-quarter of the 280 students enrolled this summer elected to
leave early.

The remainder, he said, dug in and took their finals this month before a
two-week summer break.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan