Oct. 5--ST. JOHN'S, Antigua--A fire which police suspect to be the work of arsonists destroyed sections of a controversial hotel in Antigua and Barbuda Friday morning. 

A police spokesman, Rolston Pompey, told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that they had reason to believe the fire at the Carlisle Bay Resort was deliberately set with a Molotov cocktail. 

Pompey said that sections of the hotel were destroyed as well as a storeroom/warehouse. There was no immediate estimate of the level of damage. 

Residents of Old Road Village in Antigua have been staging protests in recent months to vent their concerns about the multi-million dollar expansion of the Carlisle Bay Resort, which is owned by Irish multi-millionaire Pat Doherty. 

The residents say they are opposed to the development because of the negative impact it could have on the environment. The villagers had earlier expressed concern that 11 structures were being built too close to the ground and a managrove swamp which could result in beach erosion and severe flooding. 

The fire came a day after more than 4,000 people marched through the streets of St. John's -- amidst calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Lester Bird -- in the second "People's March", backed by the opposition, sections of the business community and civil organisations. 

Prime Minister Bird told CMC that 100,000 Eastern Caribbean dollars (US$37,000) was being offered for the arrest and conviction of the person(s) alleged to have started the blaze. 

He described the fire as a despicable act and said it "looks as though we have our own home-grown terrorists now," an obvious reference to last month's terrorist strikes on the United States. 

Bird told CMC that the military had been put on alert and security would be heightened at hotels and at other buildings. He said the country's vital tourism industry was under pressure because of the fall-out from the tragedy in the US and such incidents could wreak further havoc on the economy. 

"This will resonate not only in Antigua but give a bad image to the investment climate in the Caribbean and we have offered an award of 100,000 dollars for the arrest and conviction of the people involved. That is how seriously we look at this matter," Bird said. 

"In any event, this is clearly terrorism in any form whatever and we have to do whatever we can to stamp it out," he added. 

Bird said the authorities received a fax last week from a group which had threatened to burn buildings in the country. He said they had taken the matter seriously and police had traced the threat almost to its source. 

"...In light of what happened in New York and the World Trade Centre, it seems to me as if some people are just trying to be copycats," he said. 

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