The Bermuda Independence Commission?s claim that it could find no instance in which a country determined its position on Independence by way of a referendum missed a country that should have been close to the hearts of its members ? Bermuda in 1995.

With members of the public and the Bermudians for Referendum group jumping all over the statement ? quoted by Premier Alex Scott at a press conference on Thursday ? BIC chairman Bishop Vernon Lambe failed to return calls or e-mails and member Rolfe Commissiong refused to comment.

Although the BIC was not tasked with investigating the issue of using a General Election or a referendum to decide the question of Independence, they did refer briefly to that issue in their report.

The report stated: ?The Commission learned that, in many cases, the decision on independence was determined by means of a general election and, in no instance, did the Commission discover the use of a referendum.?

columnist Christian Dunleavy noted in response on his weblog www.politics.bm: ?Uh, Bermuda perhaps. In 1995 we had our own little referendum where the answer was ?NO?. But that precedent wasn?t worthy of mention.?

And Bermudians for Referendum organiser Michael Marsh said the statement was ?absolutely incorrect? and ?frankly outrageous?.

?Whatever the BIC or the Premier says, it doesn?t really matter,? he added. ?The point is that every Bermudian should be able to have his say, yes or no, on whether Bermuda goes independent or not.

?I don?t know of anyone who would trust a politician with absolute power and therefore voting a politician into power to make all the decisions, including major decisions, without any participation of the people is wrong.

?We are supporting ? generally ? a constitutional change which would allow for a petition leading to a referendum which becomes binding on the Government ? But in the case at hand, Mr. Scott is absolutely incorrect.?

In addition, referendums have been used to decide the question of independence for former non self-governing territories on several notable occasions on the past. The most recent example is that of East Timor, whose citizens voted in a referendum for independence in 1999.

A representative from East Timor sits on the UN Decolonisation Committee, a committee which consulted with the BIC extensively during their fact-finding mission, even travelling to Bermuda twice this year.